


Just Too Good To Be True

by hotdammneron



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Finn Skywalker (adopted), M/M, Rey Skywalker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-20 17:56:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6019627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotdammneron/pseuds/hotdammneron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the beginning of junior year, Poe finds himself immediately making new friends (and enemies), and getting in to a lot more danger than intended.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

On the first day of junior year, Poe walks into English class (his first period, coming way too early for him to be too enthused), taking a seat towards the back of the room a few minutes before the bell rings for the beginning of class. As his classmates fill into the room, he sees some new people in the class, all sitting in empty spots far from anyone they don’t already know. People who have already been attending the school at least since last year take up seats near people they know, laughing and hugging their friends and chatting about the events of the summer. Poe keeps an eye on the door, watching for a specific friend of his to enter the room. Thankfully, enough people were intimidated by him that the seat adjacent to him remains unoccupied. With a minute to spare before the bell rings, his friend Jessika slips through the door and hurries to the back of the room to sit by Poe, beaming at him on her way in as he smiles back. After standing to hug his barely on-time friend, he skims the room again, seeing a few more people who trickled into class around the same time that Jessika had.  
English passes quickly, with most of the period focused on those games you always have to play on the first day to get to know new people. Poe makes a mental note during this activity of who seems interesting and who he intends to avoid. The list of those to avoid is fairly short, consisting of an oddly familiar tall lanky kid with badly dyed black hair, a slightly shorter boy with unflatteringly slicked back red hair, and a tall muscular girl with a short platinum blonde undercut who looks like she could and would kick Poe’s ass at any minute. There are a few more, less noteable people on that list, though these are the 3 who seem to stick together and would be the worst to get on the bad side of. He doesn’t manage to catch the names of any of the people on either list, and makes a point to find their names in the future in case they come up in conversation. The positive side of his mental lists consists of a girl with her brown hair pulled up into a bun, thin but quite muscular, and a boy about his height, who keeps quiet but intrigues Poe. He tries to remember their names after class, but fails to do so.  
Poe’s next few classes go by in a similar fashion, fairly boring and uneventful, until the class he looks forward to the most, shop with Mr. Solo. Mr. Solo was a fairly intimidating man when you first got to know him, being a grumpy old guy with an extensive knowledge of power tools, but if you don’t mess around in class and you show him some respect he softens to you. His wife, Ms. Organa, worked at the school also, managing student council and teaching the government class. She was somehow more intimidating than Mr. Solo, but again only upon outward appearance. Poe was a bit of a teacher’s pet in most classes, especially shop, and was definitely one of Mr. Solo’s favorite students. Greeted upon arrival by a smile from the teacher, Poe grabbed a seat towards the front of the class.  
Mr. Solo wasn’t interested in any of that name game nonsense, and got straight to telling the class his rules and how the class was going to run. In the midst of the teacher telling a student (seemingly the pale, red haired kid from earlier) exactly what would happen if that tone persisted, he was interrupted by the door swinging open, and the interesting boy from English pushing his way into the room, sweating a bit and panting softly. “Finn! Good to see you!” Mr Solo says a bit loudly, smiling at the boy, now known as Finn, and not bothering to mark him as tardy, as Finn glances at the full seats in the room and slips into the seat next to Poe. Generally Poe is opposed to near strangers sitting near him, though this kid seems nice enough. Not like when Ben insisted on sitting near him in math, and then broke his model rocket in 4th grade. This other kid, Finn, seems to pay full attention to everything Mr. Solo says, almost to the point of taking notes, which Poe doesn’t bother to do because he’s heard this talk each year he’s taken this class. The only real reason to listen is to hear Mr. Solo throwing sass right back at the red haired kid, which is pretty hilarious.  
While sitting through this lecture, Poe notices a few things about this Finn character: he seems quiet and reserved, but answers every question with confidence and gets it right almost every time. Poe doodles in the margins of his notebook until the class is over, trying to work out the secrets of the new kid, and contemplating other things he noticed through the day. For one thing, that new kid with the black hair looked oddly familiar. The small girl spotted with Finn in English was also on the track team (Poe was the fastest on the team, with a mastered technique to outrun everyone else in competitions that he was totally unwilling to disclose to anyone, though it was fairly obvious), and she seemed like she could run faster even than Poe, but wanted to keep herself and her talents more concealed for now, understandably, being new to the school. He wondered what the connection between this girl and Finn was, as they didn’t look related in the slightest, though they might have been dating for all he knew. Poe found himself oddly determined to find out more about both of these people, and try and work out where he knew that edgy looking kid in English from.  
After the final bell rings at the end of the day, Poe lingers around the exit for a few minutes, waiting for the bus to arrive, when he sees an interesting sight. Around the corner, he sees Mr. Solo and Mrs. Organa walking to their car together as usual, though the most peculiar thing about this scenario was who was walking with them: it was the familiar kid from English. Thinking on this for a moment, Poe comes to the conclusion that there was no way that Ben, Ben Solo, could ever be the dark, brooding kid from his classes earlier in the day. There’s no way one can change that much over the summer, especially as Ben seemed pretty happy and brown haired when they last talked at the end of the school year. Poe pulls out his phone, realizing the only one he could consult on this matter was Jessika, who used to hang out with Poe and Ben back in freshman and sophomore year. “Ben=goth kid from english ???” he types, tapping the screen quickly before stuffing his phone back into his pocket as the bus rounds the corner and pulls to a stop. He feels a buzz in his pocket, checking the screen just to see a message saying “needs further consideration” from Jessika. He finds an empty seat towards the front of the bus, and makes it through the bus ride home with no interruptions.  
Stepping off the bus, Poe makes it about half a block before hearing someone call to him from a fair distance away. Turning, he sees the girl from English and her friend, who he now remembers as Finn, waving and calling him over. “Hey, what’s your name?” the girl says when Poe gets within talking distance of the two of them, with a smile even apparent in her voice. “Poe, Poe Dameron. Hey, weren’t you in my English class?” He says back, asking the second part even though he knew the answer was yes. “Hi Poe! I’m Rey, this is my brother Finn! And yeah, I thought I recognized you from English.” She says, extending a small, calloused hand to shake Poe’s hand in greeting, while Finn just smiles and waves. Poe was right upon instinct, knowing that these two were related in some way. After making idle conversation for a minute or two, Rey appears to have remembered something, and her eyes brighten (if it’s even possible to get brighter than that) as she remembers why she called Poe over in the first place. “Listen, we were wondering if you had a phone we could use? We’re both new to the area, and neither of us are quite sure how to get home from here. Could I use your phone to call our dad and have him pick us up?” She asks, talking quickly and her accent becoming more apparent as she goes on. Poe reaches to pull his phone out of his pocket, only to find that it had run out of battery on the bus home. Cursing under his breath, he tries to come up with an alternative. “Ah, shit, my phone just died… We’ve got a phone at home you could use if you’re willing to walk a bit, I just live a block or two away.” he says, Rey nodding enthusiastically and Finn nodding with a little bit less enthusiasm than his sister as they set off towards Poe’s house.  
On the way to his house, the three of them become friends almost instantly. Rey and Finn tell Poe basically their entire life stories, Poe staying quiet and mostly just listening to the others talk about the past. Rey’s mother left when she was young, leaving her alone with her father Luke. Eventually, Luke practically adopted Finn when his parents couldn’t take care of him any more, and the two of them had been best friends ever since then. They moved to the area a few months ago because of a job opportunity that Luke couldn’t pass up, and also to be close to their family. Poe remembers Mr. Solo’s enthusiastic greeting to Finn at the beginning of shop class that day, and asked how they knew each other. Apparently, Mrs. Organa is the sister of their father Luke, and Finn and Rey (along with their father) often spend holidays with the Organa/Solo’s. It felt like nearly as soon as they had started talking, they found themselves entering Poe’s house. “My parents are never home until later, make yourselves comfortable.” he says, walking into the kitchen to grab the house phone and leaving his backpack on the couch.  
While he’s gone momentarily, Finn and Poe hear a scuffling and yipping noise, only to see a small, fat, white and orange dog hurtling down the stairs and through the hallway towards them. The dog barks, running circles around where Finn and Rey stand, barking furiously as to warn Poe about these sudden intruders. “Bea Bea, be quiet! They’re our guests, you’re being rude!” Poe calls from the kitchen, Rey crouching down and petting the dog to calm it down, and Bea Bea stops her frantic yapping and flops over to reluctantly allow the stranger to rub her belly. Finally finding the phone, Poe brings it into the living room and hands it to Rey, who abandons her dog petting task to dial her father’s work number and speak to him from in the kitchen. Poe flops himself down onto the couch, letting Bea Bea hop up and lick his face as he enthusiastically rubs her sides. “Finn, buddy, sit down! There’s enough couch for both of us.” he says to his new friend, who had been standing by the door since they first arrived, patting the couch next to him. Finn walks to the couch and sits, Bea Bea eyeing him warily before running over and insisting pets. Finn laughs, still not saying much, but giving the round dog the affection she demands from him.  
Emerging from the kitchen, Rey looks solemn as she returns the phone to Poe and seats herself on the floor by the couch. “Dad can’t pick us up for another half hour because work’s running late, we could probably find our way home on foot but it’s kind of far,” she says, looking up at Finn where he sits, smiling at the small dog who had wiggled her way into his heart. Both siblings look towards Poe, who shrugs and continues smiling. “Fine by me, do you need any snacks or anything?” he says, getting up from the couch and walking to the kitchen to plug in his phone, grabbing a bag of chips from the cupboard on his way back. When he returns to the living room, he notices that Bea Bea took his spot almost immediately after he left, but just laughs and scoots the dog over before sitting back down on the couch. Once everyone gets comfortable, they get back to talking, Poe telling stories about Bea Bea and all of them just laughing and having a good time. A little under an hour later, they hear a car pull up outside of the house, Poe hugging each of his new friends in farewell, each of them pulling on their jackets and waving goodbye before leaving. Poe sits at the couch for a few more minutes, happy that he had become further acquainted with the interesting new kids, but regretting that he hadn’t gotten any form of contacting either of them. Checking his newly charged phone, he sees 3 new texts from Jessika. “Operation is a go, operation is a go” one of the messages reads, another just has a photo of Ben from last school year compared to a facebook photo of the new emo looking kid, and a third text just says “there’s something here”. Chuckling softly, Poe texts back “further investigation needed”. They acted like private investigators in weird situations quite often, ever since they were in 5th grade and trying to find out where Bea Bea went. He tries not to worry about how Jess managed to get a photo of the “new” kid, makes himself a sandwich for dinner, and heads to bed early.  
The next morning, Poe gets to school early (as usual) and walks around the building for a few minutes to pass time until the bell rings. Seeing Jessika walking towards him, he brightens and speeds up to walk closer to her. “Poe, Poe, this is urgent,” she says, capturing his full attention as they catch up with each other. “I saw the guy coming out of Lei-um, Mrs. Organa’s car this morning!” she said quietly, looking around to check that nobody was listening. “Yeah, I saw him get into their car yesterday after school, that’s where this all started…” “We need more information, I can’t believe that it might be Ben! I could always get to know that girl he was hanging out with yesterday, find out h-” she says, her idea being cut off by Poe shaking his head. “Jess, that girl would snap your neck, I’m nearly positive she would not be willing to disclose information on this alleged Solo, even if you probably think she’s super cute.” he says, clapping his hand on her shoulder and laughing hard at the blush that spread over her face. Jess stayed quiet for a few minutes, evidently embarrassed by Poe’s accusations, but still smiling. They make their way to their first period class, Poe telling her about the events of the previous afternoon with Finn and Rey.  
The first half of the day passes quickly for Poe, with very little class work and not much more name-game nonsense today. When the bell for lunch rings, he heads to the cafeteria with his sandwich (brought from home, with some snacks, because the school food is atrocious), and sits down at a table with Jessika, not talking much as they both eat their food. Across the cafeteria, he sees Finn sitting alone at a table, Rey nowhere to be seen, picking at the slimy school pizza on his plate but not eating any of it. “One second,” Poe says, sliding out of his seat and walking to where Finn sits, sitting down at his table. “Y’okay Finn?” he says, placing a hand on the table, giving the other boy a sympathetic look. Finn nods, but Poe can see the sadness in his eyes as he looks down at his pizza. “Really, dude? You don’t seem too good, where’s Rey?” “I’m okay I guess, and Rey’s at home because she wasn’t feeling well. I’m just tired, thanks for asking.” Finn replies, still seeming a bit down. “C’mon, buddy, you should come sit with Jess and I!” Poe says, patting Finn on the shoulder as he stands up, looking over at the other guy for a moment to check that he was following before turning back and walking over to his previous table.  
“Jessika, this is Finn, Finn, this is Jessika.” he says, and Finn stands and reaches out to shake Jessika’s hand but she pulls him in for a hug instead. “Nice to meet you, Finn!” she says once she pulls away from the hug, returning to her seat. “Nice to meet you too, it’s Jessika, right?” he responds, looking concerned as Jess nods with her mouth full of food. When all three of them are seated comfortably at the small cafeteria table and chatting, Poe realizes something devastating: Finn left his pizza at the other table, and it was thrown away by a custodian, so Finn doesn’t have any lunch. A look of concern crosses Poe’s face, his brow furrowing, and he reaches to rustle around in his bag for a moment. When he emerges from under the table, both Finn and Jessika are staring quizzically at him. He had pulled a bagel and a granola bar from inside his bag, and moved them across the table towards Finn. The other boy still looks confused, and Poe nods towards the food on the table and looks back at Finn. “You don’t have a lunch, dude. I’ve got spare food. Take it.” he says, a bit of a pleading note in his tone, not quite sure why he’s doing this (he needs those snacks for later in the day if he gets hungry, why is he giving them to this new kid?) but he pushes the food closer to Finn. “Thank you,” Finn responds, smiling and taking the food. Poe nods, smiling as he stares at his new friend for a bit longer than necessary, before clearing his throat and going back to his food.  
After school, Poe waits at the bus stop with Finn until Luke arrives to pick him up, hugging him goodbye and walking the rest of the way home. When he gets home, his stomach is growling and he makes himself some soup and goes to work on his homework. Sitting on the couch with Bea Bea, avoiding homework, he has a thought and remembers he got Finn’s phone number at lunch today, and pulls his phone out of his pocket to text him. He sends one text, saying just “any allergies???”, then finishing his soup and checking his phone again. One message received from Finn, “cats!!!! and almonds” was all the message read, and Poe responds with a smiling emoji before finishing his homework. Setting an alarm for 6:00, he goes to bed earlier that night, planning for an earlier start than usual in the following morning.  
Poe wakes up promptly at 6:00 when his alarm goes off, resisting the allure of staying in bed longer. He gets up and goes into the kitchen to make himself breakfast. For about half an hour he forgot why he woke up so early in the first place, but remembers his reasoning and pulls out a loaf of bread, peanut butter, and jam, making two extra sandwiches and slipping them into a plastic bag. He pats Bea Bea on the head, pulls on an old leather jacket, and leaves the house to go to school. Because of his extra early start this morning, he decides to walk to school instead of taking the bus, humming as he covers the long walk to school. Checking his phone half way through the walk, he sees a message from Finn: “do you need a ride to school?” Poe considered this for a moment, wondering why Finn would offer a way to school, and texts back to decline, as he was already most of the way to the school and still had time. Poe took a moment to think about Finn, this new kid at school who he became friends with nearly instantly, who he gave half of his lunch to yesterday, who he made lunch for today (completely unprompted), and who just offered him a ride to school. Finn may be the nicest person that Poe had ever met, with his sister as a close runner up.  
His thoughts were interrupted by the beep of a car horn, turning to see Rey leaning out of the window of an old car, with someone he couldn’t quite recognize sitting in the driver’s seat. As the car pulls over, Rey hollers “Hey Poe get in!!!” and he obliges, not being able to refuse that offer, though it may sound a little bit menacing. “Rey, put your seatbelt on.” says a deep voice from the front seat as Poe climbs into the backseat, which he recognizes as Finn. “Hey guys, I was fine walking, but thanks! Finn, I didn’t know you could drive?” he says, making sure to fasten his seatbelt as to not be reprimanded by his unexpected driver. “I can drive, yeah, but I don’t have my own car, so I just use dad’s when he doesn’t need it.” Finn says, turning his head to address Poe before pulling back over into the street and driving the rest of the way to school. Rey and Poe talk for most of the drive, with not much word from Finn as he focused on the road. They part ways between classes, but all of them sit together (with Jessika) at lunch. Poe finds Finn and Rey in the halls when lunch starts, making their way to the cafeteria, but stops them as he digs through his bag, pulling out a sandwich for each of them as they walk to an empty table in the lunchroom, Jessika taking a moment but making her way over eventually. Poe makes sure that everyone knows each other, introducing Jessika to Rey and all parties being happy to suddenly have more friends, and Finn and Rey being exceedingly grateful to Poe for his sandwich-making (and friend-making) expertise.


	2. Just Too Good To Be True- 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe Has a few problems, including an intimidating classmate, a really cute friend, and he's nearly failing calculus. There's probably no way this can get any worse.

Poe Dameron has a problem. Well, lots of problems, but there are just a few that are the most important to focus on. His old best friend, Ben Solo, has transformed into a distant, moody goth kid who hangs out with a few new kids who get close to being a gang at times. Poe is fairly sure that one of these kids, who everyone calls “Captain” or “Captain Phasma” out of fear, is probably going to kill him fairly soon. To top this all off, Poe has a fairly new friend who just might be the cutest boy he’s ever seen, and he’s probably imagining things but he might accidentally be totally in love with one of his best friends. Plus, he got a C in calculus and probably needs a tutor because he doesn’t know what the hell is going on in the class at this point. Sitting on the curb after school, he sees someone sit down by him out of the corner of his eye, recognizing that it’s Finn. Poe keeps staring at his worn boots, not making any conversation at first, picking at a hole in his jeans and waiting for Finn to talk.   
“Poe, are you okay?” “Y’know, not really, Finn. Not really doing too great.” Poe’s voice is shaking when he says this, balling his fists and not looking up from his feet. Finn pulls him over into a slightly uncomfortably angled hug from the side, the two of them sitting in a somewhat awkward silence for a few minutes. Poe’s breathing evens a bit, and he notices (in a totally accidental, non-creepy way) that Finn smells really nice and is apparently a really good hugger. “I got a C in calculus, I need to fix that or my parents are gonna kill me.” “I can tutor you, if you want, calculus is one of my best subjects.” “I’d like that, Finn.” Poe smiles, a tear running down his face, and stays leaning on the other boy for a few minutes until the bus shows up. He sits up as the bus rounds the corner, cursing quietly and pulling out his phone to see if he looks like a complete mess or not. He, in fact, looks like a complete mess. Finn looks over at him, seeing the distress in his eyes, and smiles before standing and offering him a hand up.  
“I can give you a ride home, dad didn’t need his car today, and I was just staying late to make sure you were okay. C’mon, I’m parked out back.” Poe smiles back at him, patting him on the shoulder as a wordless show of gratitude and following him behind the building to the student lot. Throughout the drive to Poe’s house, neither one of them talks very much, excluding small talk. Finn respects that Poe probably doesn’t want to talk right now, the guy seems to have a lot on his mind, and they stay in relative silence until they’re almost to Poe’s house. As they’re rounding the corner to his house, he feels himself crying again, whether or not he can stop it, and Finn looks over to check if he’s okay. They drive the rest of the way to his house in near silence, but as they pull up in front of the house Poe starts to say something. “Finn, I-” he stops himself part way through his sentence, not wanting to embarrass himself any further today, only receiving a questioning glance from Finn. “Uh, thanks.” Poe says quickly, flashing a quick smile at the other boy before grabbing his bag from the floor of the car and walking to his house. Looking back at Finn and seeing the sad expression on his face, he quietly curses himself and walks the rest of the way to the door, flopping down on the couch when he gets inside and sleeping until his alarm goes off in the morning.  
When Poe wakes up at 6:30, he doesn’t remember having a blanket with him, and he pulls his phone from his jacket pocket and sees 9 unread texts, mostly from Finn. Before he can read these, his stomach lets out a near demonically low growl, and he remembers he neglected dinner last night. Walking into a few walls and tables on his way to the kitchen, he makes 4 pieces of toast for breakfast and goes back to the couch. He looks back at his phone and reads the messages as he eats.  
From: Finn~ 5:34PM. sorry buddy :(  
From: Finn~ 5:35PM. i’m not sure whats wrong but if u need to talk im here ok!!  
From: Finn~ 5:36PM. sorry for all the texts but i hope ur ok   
From: Finn~ 11:42PM. i’m guessing ur asleep bc u havent texted back but ill see u tomorrow  
From: Finn~ 11:50PM. please let me know if u need anything

After reading these, Poe puts his phone down, dragging his hands down his face. If he’s being really honest here, he’s a total asshole. He feels terrible, because he got Finn all worried and barely thanked him for giving him a ride, then neglected to answer his phone all night because he was busy sleeping and being terrible. Bea Bea sticks her head up from where she slept buried in the blanket on the couch, squinting at Poe before licking his hand comfortingly. He pats her head and goes back to his multitude of unread messages from the previous night, trying to dispel his negative thoughts and just get his texts answered. 

From: Jessika!!!! 2:43AM. btw kylo ben (LMAO) talked to me today  
From: Jessika!!!! 2:46AM. wait are you asleep??? loser

From: Rey :) 10:15PM. What was the movie you recommended for Finn and I?

From: Finn~ 5:45AM. poe r u ok please talk to me!!!!

Sighing deeply, Poe prioritizes which messages to respond to first. He definitely feels a bit less miserable this morning, which is good because yesterday was pretty much the worst. Seeing exactly how distressed Finn was about his state warmed his heart a bit, and put him at the top priority for responding to. Next up was Rey, and then Jessika. What would he say to Finn though? Sorry I had an emotional breakdown over what seems like just my math grade? Sorry I’m probably totally in love with you? Sorry I got home and fell asleep for 14 hours and didn’t answer your messages? Talking is really hard when you have so much to say and so little ability to communicate it over text. Instead of messing up a series of texts, he decided it would be better to mess up a phone call instead, and just texts Finn a simple “long story, call me?” before finishing his toast and getting changed for school. As he pulls on his boots, he feels his phone ring in his pocket and sees that it’s Finn calling him, as he asked.   
“Hey, it’s Finn. What’s up?”  
“My old best friend is an edgy jerk who’s in with the wrong crowd, the Captain might kill me, I’m having like three more crises, and I almost failed calculus. Man, that was good to get that all off my back. Really, I’m fine now, I was just having a bad day yesterday.”  
“What are the three other crises? Is Bea Bea missing? Oh god is she okay-”  
“Yea, Bea Bea’s fine, she’s right here- say hi to Finn Bea!- I don’t really want to get too into it, just… Social issues I guess? Let’s just say I’m having dude problems, leave it at that.”  
“I get you there, buddy. I’m so glad that Bea Bea is okay! Any way, you need anything? You know I’m totally here for you if you need emotional support, or help with your ‘dude problems’, that sounds weird now that I say it but you know what I mean,”  
“I’m good, thanks Finn. I’ll let you know if I need any help. For now I’ve gotta head out, I’ll talk to you at school!” 

Poe hangs up the phone after Finn says goodbye, and goes to brush his teeth. When he looks in the mirror, he sees his eyes still puffy and his face covered in creases from sleeping on the couch. Splashing water onto his face and getting some in his hair in the process, he checks his appearance in the mirror one more time before deeming it acceptable and leaving the bathroom. He pulls on an old leather jacket by the door, ruffling his own hair to a less “licked by a wet cat” look (unlike what that “General” Hux kid apparently went for everyday), and heading to school. He switches up his schedule of how he gets to school, most days taking the school bus, sometimes walking the whole way. Today, he decides he doesn’t want to see anyone from school this early, so he takes the city bus most of the way to school instead

A few blocks away, Finn says goodbye to Poe and puts his phone back in his pocket, heading to the kitchen for breakfast, where he sees Rey seated with their father at the table. “Do we have any coffee?” he mumbles, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he grabs the half full coffee pot that Luke nods to, silently pumping his fist in the air because there’s coffee and Poe seems better and today might just be alright. Pouring a mug of coffee, he listens to Rey and Luke talk through their toast-filled mouths, and leans against the sink as he drinks his coffee. Rey, being a total morning person (more like an all-day person, Finn can’t remember a time when she was ever sad), practically bounced over to the sink to wash her toast plate and head back to her room to change. After she leaves, Finn sits at the table in silence for a few moments with his adopted father. After a moment of no talking, Luke finally initiates the conversation. “Who were you talking with up there?” “I was on the phone, with my buddy Poe. Why d’you ask?” “You seemed awfully worried, is everything alright, Finn?” He nods in response, leaving Luke satisfied and apparently ending the conversation. About 10 minutes later Rey comes back downstairs, fully dressed and ready to leave. Finn had already gotten dressed earlier that morning, so he just had to eat a quick breakfast, which he was done with by the time Rey returned. They both say goodbye to Luke and go the short distance to the bus stop, right in time as the bus rounds the corner, and sit together (as always) towards the front of the bus.

Poe makes it through his classes, being relieved to chat with Finn and Rey between classes, and apologizing to Jessika for not responding to her texts. At lunch, Jessika invites all three of them to hang out at her house the following day, which is Friday, as a sort of small party. They all say yes, and agree to meet at Jess’ house around 5:30.   
The rest of Thursday and Friday pass quickly, until it’s almost time for Poe to leave for Jessika’s house. While he gets ready, he realizes that he has absolutely no way to get there, unless he takes the city bus, but that costs money. He texts Rey to ask how she and her brother are getting there, and finds that they are driving, so he arranges a ride with the two of them and has that taken care of. Despite this being a very casual gathering, he finds himself oddly compelled to dress a bit nicer than usual, opting for jeans and a button-up shirt, still wearing the leather jacket he wore the previous day. Right as he finishes getting ready he hears a car pull up outside, Rey and Finn arriving right on time. He scribbles down a short note to his parents saying he’ll be at Jessika’s house, and hurries out the door and gets into the car with his friends. “We don’t know her address, where does she live again?” Finn asks as he backs the car out of the driveway and back into the road, Poe responding with her street number. The drive to Jess’ house is a bit long as she lives farther away, but the time passes fairly quickly.  
Jessika greets them at the door, flourishing the door open dramatically with a “welcome to my home!”, taking Finn and Rey around to show them where everything is while Poe makes himself comfortable in the living room, as he’s been to her house many times before. When the others return to the living room, all carrying adequate snacks to keep them all satisfied for a while, Finn sits on the couch with Poe as Rey and Jessika sit on comfortable chairs across from them. Eventually, the topic of conversation switches over to the menacing group of new kids. “Don’t ask where I got this information from, but I heard Hux used to be in a chess club.” Rey said, giggling at this notion, and Jess bursting out laughing just at the thought of him being in a chess club. “I think he styles his hair by sticking his head in a cow’s mouth and having it lick his hair, and somehow he thinks that looks good.” Poe responds, showing his obvious distaste for the guy through his tone. “Phasma could totally bench press me,” “Oh my God Jess, stop thirsting for the enemy!!”   
“Okay, but seriously what’s the deal with that Kyle dude?” Finn asks, and Poe chokes on his drink from laughing so hard. “Basically, he’s Mr. Solo and Mrs. Organa’s son. He used to go by Ben, even just last year, and he was just an all around super happy dude. He had brown hair even! But then this year we all came back and he had black hair and was suddenly friends with all these mean new kids, mostly Hux and Phasma. He throws a fit if anyone calls him Ben, and they all have nicknames for eachother. It’s like some kind of gang, but full of dweebs.” Poe responds after he’s through laughing at Finn calling him “Kyle”, keeping his voice hushed as if someone’s watching and could strike at any minute. Rey and Finn sit wide-eyed through this story, as if it’s much more interesting than it really is, and Jessika still just laughs through the entire time Poe’s telling the tragic tale of “Kylo Ren”. “I feel like I recognize them, Phasma and Hux, from somewhere, did they go to school with us at some point?” Finn asks, turning to Rey for confirmation. She thinks for a moment and then nods, explaining that they’ve moved around a lot and went to the same school in 4th grade as Hux and Phasma. “I think his full name is like, Huxtable or something, but all the bullies called him Table. That’s probably why he won’t let anyone know what his full name is. I’m not sure about Phasma though, that could be her real name for all I know.” Rey says as she recalls the year that they all went to the same school. “A guy can only take being called Table for so long before he becomes a total dick, I guess.” Poe says, a look of mock pity on his face. Finn claps him on the shoulder and gives him a look, saying “I’m calling you Table from now on.”. The entire room dissolves into laughter from the hilarity of their somehow connected childhood friends becoming this weird evil club that menaces the other students.  
Later on in the night, a spark of an idea appears in Jessika’s eye as she scans the room. At some point, they had moved from the living room into the guest room upstairs, most of them sprawled out on the floor, but Poe laying on the guest bed, cupping his chin in his hands and looking down at them. “Do you guys want to play truth or dare?” she says, and everyone agrees to do so because they’re all tired and in a mood for some good fun. “Okay, ground rules: no backing out of a dare unless it’s super unreasonable, and like absolutely no giving up on a truth question.” Jess looks between the others for confirmation, and when they all nod she carries on.   
“Okay, who’s going first? Poe?” Poe shrugs, trying to stay cool and even despite the eventual terrors of playing truth or dare with Jessika Pava, the girl is absolutely ruthless. “Alright Poe, truth or dare?” “Dare, I’m feelin’ risky tonight.” The three others in the room take a moment to discuss potential challenges, before finally settling on one. “Okay, you have to give your phone to one person in the room, unlocked, and let them send a text to anyone in your contact list. You ready?” Jess says, and Poe pulls his phone from his pocket and quickly decides to give it to Jessika. Her eyes light up as she grabs the phone, quickly typing in a few words before handing his phone back, right as Rey’s phone vibrates in her pocket. She glances at Jess questioningly, pulling her phone out of her pocket but neglecting to check the message until later, as the others were already moving on with the game.  
“Because Jess chose for me last time, I’m gonna choose… Finn! Truth or dare buddy?” “Truth, definitely truth. Bring it on dude.” Poe thinks for a moment, leans over to consult Rey on the matter, and then pulls himself back up onto his elbows on the bed. “Okay, it’s decided. You have to tell us about your most awkward date!” Poe exclaims, looking back down at Rey, as Finn looks sort of panicked for a moment. “I’ve never been on a date, though? I mean unless you can count ‘dating’ in like 3rd grade, then I can’t answer that.” he answers, gaining varied reactions from the different people around him. Rey doesn’t look too surprised but looks sorta distant and distracted, Jessika looks a little bit surprised, but Poe is sitting on the bed and he looks so shocked, with his brow furrowed and mouth slightly open. Poe blushes when he notices the other boys eyes on him, and worries for a moment about any potential mind readers in the area, quickly trying to divert his thoughts to totally platonic things, like not holding hands or playing with the others’ hair or anything. If there’s a psychic in here, please ignore me, he thinks, realizing he’s been staring at the mattress for a bit longer than normal, and quickly snapping his eyes back up.   
While he prepared for any impending psychics, Jess did him the favor of moving on without him, and Rey was currently completing some flexibility based dare that seemed really physically impossible but she somehow did it, and Jessika was watching from the other side of the circle and trying not to seem too intent on the situation, but really obviously failing at that. Right after Rey’s turn it was Jessika’s, and she chose truth with the question of “What’s your most disgusting hobby?”, and the response of “I still hang out with Poe Dameron nearly daily.”. Poe looked at her, seeming hurt, but threw his head back in laughter moments later without actually taking it seriously. “Dameron, you’re up next. Who do you like?” she asks after a minute of inactivity, raising an eyebrow knowingly and looking up at him where he lays on the bed. Rolling over onto his back to keep his face somewhat concealed, he tells the potential psychics to not tell anyone, and just says “Nobody in particular,” in as nonchalant of a tone as possible. Really though, most of his actions gave away his lie, but luckily nothing specific, and the rest of the group teased him for the duration of the night.   
Upon leaving Jessika’s house with Finn and Rey around midnight, Poe felt most of his previous troubles gone away, or at least dissipated a bit and left him with an easy comfortable feeling. All the windows in the car were rolled down, with the cool night air blowing on his face boosting his mood, and the company of two of his new best friends in the world, hell, even in the galaxy, making this night one to remember. When he got home, he layed in bed for hours before sleeping, texting Finn and just chatting about general things until he fell asleep with Bea Bea at his side and good thoughts of friends in his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy here's chapter 2! stuff gets real pretty soon so get ready...  
> Tumblr: hotdammneron


	3. Just Too Good To Be True (3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe is a bit too defensive of his friends and can't help but call some people out on their attitude, which gets him into quite a bit of trouble. (Warning for some moderate violence and injuries~)

Monday morning, Poe gets up and goes through his average morning routine. Nothing particularly interesting happens through the day, up until lunch. Halfway through lunch, he’s walking to his locker, when he sees Phasma and Hux walking down the hall in the same direction as him. When he happens to eavesdrop on their quiet conversation, the things he hears are absolutely infuriating. Finn’s name comes up a few times in their exchange, but nothing they say about him is positive in the slightest. Instead, they’re hurling insults indirectly at him, calling him things like “worthless”, “boring” and “loser”, among other less savory things that Poe didn’t wish to consider any further. Gritting his teeth, it took all of his willpower not to turn around and punch Phasma in the jaw right then and there, and to keep walking to his locker uninterrupted. He decided they were going to settle this like civilized adults, and he was going to punch her in the face after school rather than in the hallway during lunch. He makes it through the rest of the day uninterrupted, trying to keep his cool and not tear in half every notebook he owned. He barely even paid attention in shop, and couldn’t bring himself to focus on anything Finn said to him while they worked on their respective clock designs.  
As soon as the bell rang, he’s ready. He has a plan: he is going to leave his backpack in his locker, find Phasma wherever she is, and tell her that what she was doing wasn’t acceptable. While earlier in the day he was ready to resort directly to violence in this matter, he thought about what the best course of action was, and decided that Mrs. Organa would advise talking things through first, then resorting to violence if completely necessary. Trying to take after her as inspiration, he decided to try and talk some sense into Phasma’s head before punching her in the face. Walking through the building with his backpack safe in his locker, he jogs in place in the empty hall for a minute, trying to get his energy and heart rate up in case the worst (or best, depending on who you ask) scenario happens and he needs to resort to violence.  
As Poe waits for any sign of Phasma, he sees basically everyone else in the school leave. He almost gave up hope when he saw Hux’s mother arrive and drive him home, as Phasma often left with Hux, but he stayed at the school a while longer on a gut feeling. It gets cold outside the building, and the doors had already been locked by the custodian (with Poe’s backpack left inside, regrettably), and Poe doesn’t have a jacket. In order to warm up just a bit, he goes out to the back of the building to run some laps, when he sees his target: Phasma, “the Captain”, nearly half a foot taller than Poe and really a lot more intimidating face to face than she ever seemed when he wasn’t about to lecture her. She was leaning against the back wall, not doing much of anything, when he rounded the corner and she spotted him out of the corner of her eye. He stands at a safe distance away from her, shaking either from the cold or from the intimidation factor of her height and musculature, and calls out her name. She turns her head, slowly, with the precision and steadiness of some kind of really frightening hawk.  
“Poe Dameron,” she growls, her voice sounding full of venom as she speaks each syllable of his name carefully. “I want to talk with you.” Poe calls, taking a few nervous steps forward as she maintains eye contact. “Well, you’re talking.” She says coldly, making Poe shake even more with each step he takes. She turns to him and takes a few steps, bringing them terrifyingly close to one another, nearly toe to toe as he tries to be intimidating, craning his neck to see her face. “Listen, Phasma. I heard what you were saying about Finn earlier today, and I cannot let that stand. You need to clean your act up-” Poe gets about an eighth of the way through his fairly planned speech before she punches him square in the jaw. Dazed slightly, he looks her as square in the eye as he can manage and says “Ok, so we’re doing this.” quietly. He punches her, once in the face, as she lands another hit to his nose, and he feels a throbbing pain all over his face, but he can’t stop now. He lands a fairly solid kick to her knees, throwing her off balance for a moment, but she is far more experienced in a fight than he is, and she dodges his next punch while kneeing him in the stomach. He falls to his knees, coughing up a fair bit of blood, as she towers over him.  
As he tries to stand up, she punches him in the gut, bringing him back to the ground. While he’s down, she continues hitting him in the face frequently without much expression on her barely injured face. He reaches up a few times, trying to hit Phasma back, and landing a few hits to her arm and occasionally her face. He stumbles to his feet again, Phasma taking a momentary step back, and Poe kicking her in the shin once he’s standing. Before he can get another strike against her, she swipes his legs out from under him once more. Once Poe is on the ground yet again, she kicks him quickly multiple times in the stomach. His head is throbbing in pain as she turns her back to him laying on the ground, walking away. “Good talk.” she says calmly, and that’s the last thing that Poe hears before he blacks out.  
When he gains consciousness, the sky and back field are completely dark. Absolutely every part of his body is aching, and he can’t really move very well. He sits propped against the back wall of the building, with a throbbing feeling in his head and there’s sort of blood everywhere as far as he can tell. Shit. He tries to grab his phone from his pocket, and it hurts a ton but he manages to pull it out and go to the messenger app. He goes to Finn’s contact, and types potentially the most misspelled version of the phrase “are you home” and following that “i need a ride” ever known to the english language. Finn quickly responds, “it’s midnight poe where are you? I’m on my way” and Poe finds himself somewhat forgetting where he is and what happened to him, until he looks around the field and texts back “school”. He can already imagine Finn’s response, wondering why he’s still at school this late, but knows that the other boy will come through and still give him a ride despite his nonsense. After a moment he manages to pull himself up from the ground, every part of his body hurting even more at the unwanted motion, and limps out to the front of the school, Finn arriving minutes later in Luke’s old car. He walks over to the car, wincing as he extends his hand to open the passenger door and getting into the seat with a low groan.  
Finn asks if he’s okay, and they don’t talk much for the entire way back to Poe’s house. When they get to the corner that one turns at to reach Poe’s house, however, he doesn’t turn and continues going straight ahead. Poe turns to look at him, confused but a bit too tired and beat up to really question his choice. “You’re obviously hurt, even if you refuse to talk about it. I’m at least taking you back to my house to clean you up a bit and make sure you’re okay, and you can stay there if you want, otherwise I’ll take you back home.” Finn says in response to the questioning look, his voice wavering just a bit but keeping his eyes on the road. Neither of them says anything until they reach Finn’s house. After they pull into the driveway, Poe sits up and tries to pull himself from the car, but the movement just causes everything to hurt more. Finn gets out of the car, running to the passenger’s side and helps the other guy out of the car, supporting him as they walk to the front door and walking him over to the couch when they get inside.  
Finn disappears for a moment, leaving Poe on the couch, and returns moments later with a first aid kit and turns the light on. In the darkness of the car, neither of them had realized just how messed up Poe looks. His shirt is soaked in places with blood, probably only his own, and both of his eyes are bruised, his nose is crooked and he has multiple bloody spots on his head. Only Finn noticed most of these things, with Poe mostly noticing the blood on his shirt, his favorite shirt, and more rips in his jeans then he recalled being there previously. Finn leaves again, coming back with some damp rags, a glass of water, and the recommended dose of painkillers in his hands. As Poe drinks the water and takes the pills, Finn pats his face with one of the towels, trying to get some of the blood off his face. Poe flinches at the feeling of the rag on the cuts in his face, but gives in to it being as it’s for the better in the long run. Finn sits next to him on the couch, leaning over with their faces close together, as he takes a look at his nose closely. He re-situates himself on the couch, facing Poe and sighing. “Listen, your nose isn’t broken, but it’s pretty crooked. I can fix that, if you want, otherwise we can leave it but it might cause some problems in the future.” Poe nods in response, readying himself for the pain that’s inevitable from having your nose snapped back into place. “Three… Two… One.” Finn says, but he pulls Poe’s nose into place on the count of two, the other boy letting out an irritated groan and slumping backwards onto the couch. Finn also leans back, both of them staring at the ceiling for a few minutes.

“Care to tell me what happened?”  
“Where’s your dad? Where’s Rey?”  
“Nice work evading that question. He’s on vacation, and Rey’s staying at Jessika’s for a few days, so I’ve got the house to myself basically. Who did this to you?”  
“I’m not going to disclose that information.” 

They sit in silence for what seems like an eternity before Poe finally talks again.

“If I tell you, you have to promise not to do anything stupid that’ll get you killed, ok?”  
“I’ll try not to.”

More excruciating silence.

“It was Phasma, I heard her and Hux saying terrible things about you in the hallway, I couldn’t take it, so I found her after school and I was trying to just talk to her, but she kicked my ass, she’s too strong, and I managed to get a few hits in but she had me on the ground, and-” 

Tears are streaming down his face at this point, sobbing through his words as he continues. 

“The things they were saying, I hate them so much they’re terrible they’re absolutely despicable people, I want them to die, I hate them both so much, you’re like, the nicest guy ever! How could anyone find anything bad to say about you? I was trying to tell her, that she’s wrong and she doesn't even know you, but she just punched me and she needs to-” 

His ranting is cut short when Finn pulls him over, holding him in a tight hug that seems like it lasts forever, both of them crying at this point. Drowsy from the stress of the day and the pain medication, Poe nearly falls asleep right there, but Finn speaks before he can slip back out of consciousness. 

“You didn’t have to do that, Poe. You could’ve gotten yourself killed.”  
“I had to, buddy, the things they were saying, I couldn’t let them get away with that-”  
“Dude, your shirt is soaked, do you want to borrow one of mine?”  
“Sure.”  
Poe tries to get up and follow Finn, not wanting the other boy to have to wait on him, but he falls back down on to the couch when he stands. Moments later, Finn returns with a maroon shirt and some old flannel pajama pants in hand, passing them over to Poe and rubbing sleep from his own eyes. Poe manages to successfully get up from the couch this time, and stumbles over to the bathroom, walking into a few walls on the way. Flipping the lightswitch on in the bathroom, he stares at himself in the nearly spotless mirror. He looks absolutely pitiful. His eyes are black and bruised, his nose is still slightly crooked, he has cuts and bruises all over his face, and to top it all off, his eyes are puffy and red from crying. He slowly takes off his shirt, seeing more small injuries on his torso as well, and changes into the soft shirt Finn gave him. The new shirt fits loosely on him, but it’s comfortable and he tries not to think about the fact that it smells a bit like Finn. The pajama pants are slightly too large as well, but he tightens the drawstring and finds them to be an alright length. He leaves the bathroom, his own clothes bundled under his arm, and walks back into the living room where Finn sits on the couch.  
Easing himself back onto the empty side of the couch, Poe stares blankly at the wall for a few minutes, half asleep but in a bit too much pain to actually sleep yet. Finn’s eyes droop, looking definitely tired but unwilling to let himself sleep yet. Tucking his legs up next to him on the couch, Poe curls up a bit and rests his head on the armrest, trying not to get too close to Finn and make it weird. Following a few minutes of silence with a cloud of exhaustion and sadness in the air, Finn turns on the TV that sits on a table in the corner, finding a channel playing nothing but old western movies and keeping the volume at a low buzz. Poe finds himself paying at least enough attention to vaguely grasp the plot of the first movie, and Finn is able to tune in a bit more and answer any questions Poe has about certain twists and plot elements he may have missed.  
Towards what seemed like the end of the movie, Finn seemed a bit quieter, responding to Poe’s questions less frequently and speaking in a more hushed tone. As the final credits scroll across the screen, Poe looks over to where Finn lays against the opposite armrest, noticing the slow rise and fall of the other boy’s chest and his face relaxed. Pulling a blanket off of the back of the couch and loosely draping it over himself (despite the effort and pain of reaching behind his head), he pulls the other edge of the soft blanket over as much of Finn as he can comfortably reach. Minutes later Poe manages to get to sleep, not bothering to turn off the TV and still hearing the quiet bustle of the next movie that came on.  
The next morning around 6:15, Finn wakes up to find himself leaning nearly his entire body against Poe’s still sleeping side, and feels a small aching pain in his neck. Shifting his weight upward and leaning back against the couch, he weighs his options. First of all, he could go to school, not get in any kind of trouble for skipping, and not miss any assignments, but he knows that he wouldn’t be able to focus at all because he would be too worried about Poe. On the other hand, he could stay home and potentially miss some work that he would have to do at home, but he could stay near Poe and make sure that he was okay, being as he adamantly opposed a visit to any kind of medical center despite his terrible state. Deciding to go with the second option, he sends a text to Rey, just saying “won’t be at school today, can you get the homework for me?”, before laying back down against the other side of the couch and getting a few more hours of much needed sleep.  
When Poe wakes up, he notices a few things initially. For one thing, a bit of the pain from his injuries had subsided slightly, leaving him feeling quite better (despite a cramp in his legs from keeping them folded overnight), though still pretty badly hurt. Another thing he noticed was the fact that the rest of the couch was vacant, and he has a faded memory of someone being there along with him when he fell asleep the previous night. Similarly, Poe Dameron does not entirely know where he is. Looking down at the fleece blanket tangled between his legs, memories of the previous night slowly start coming back to him. He remembers Phasma punching him a lot, everything hurting, Finn bringing him back to his house, and.. Right, he was at Finn’s house. But where was Finn? Sitting up, he prepares himself to stand, and executes the exact, instinctual movements needed to stand up, but somehow messes that up and lands flat on his face. Hearing the thud from the living room, Finn runs into the room from the kitchen and moves to help Poe back onto the couch, then placing an upturned vase back onto the coffee table. “You okay Poe?” he asks, sitting down on the couch. In response, Poe looks at him, raises his eyebrows, and winks really slowly. Even Poe doesn’t know what this is supposed to mean in his still fairly dazed state, but somehow he manages to get some kind of point through to Finn, who just laughs and relaxes a bit against the couch.  
Through the day, Poe never questions whether Finn should probably be at school or not. He spends most of the time slipping in and out of sleep on the couch. Still worried about his friend, Finn makes sure that Poe gets enough water and food throughout the day. They both sit in the living room practically all day, watching the TV in the corner, and Poe asking unnecessary questions about what’s happening in the movie, mostly just to hear Finn’s explanation. Poe ends up leaning on Finn’s shoulder for at least an hour, both of them loosely draped with blankets from Finn’s room. Poe falls back asleep fairly soon, having stopped paying attention to whatever was playing on the TV quite a while ago, still leaning on Finn. Without thinking about it, Finn finds himself running his hands idly through the other boy’s hair, feeling his soft curls between his fingers as he stares drowsily at the TV. Minutes later, Finn is snapped out of his daze when he hears the front door click open, and Rey walks into the house and down the hall into the living room.  
“Finn? You there?” she calls as she enters the room, Finn looking over his shoulder and smiling as he hears her voice. “Why weren’t you at school? Wait, why is Poe here? Oh god is he okay, who killed Poe?” Rey continues speaking, talking quickly and a bit loud, tossing her bag onto the ground across from the couch and sitting down in the empty chair. “Long story, I’ll tell you later. How was school?” “You’re killing me with the suspense here! School was pretty boring, But I got your homework…” She rummages in her bag, pulling out a few sheets of paper and passing them over to Finn. Giving her a thumbs up, he looks down to his shoulder where Poe lays, the other boy’s hair splayed out over his face. Rey glances at him, giving him a seemingly knowing look with a raised eyebrow. He shakes his head at Rey, blushing slightly and busying himself with his homework as she does the same. The two of them work together on some of the questions in a hushed tone, trying not to wake Poe up while still getting work done.  
Eventually, Poe wakes up and tries not to question his awkward positioning, leaning on Finn with the other boy’s arm draped over his shoulder. He looks up at Finn, trying not to move too quickly and injure himself further, and Finn looks back at him. This would have been a very nice moment, and it was for a few seconds, until Poe’s stomach took this opportunity to growl deeply with hunger. “Do you need some food?” Finn asks, still holding eye contact with Poe, who nods in response. He sits up, leaning against the back of the couch instead of on Finn, and Finn gets up and heads to the kitchen to make both of them (and Rey presumably) dinner.  
Fifteen minutes later, Finn returns to the living room, holding a steaming bowl and setting it down on the table before going upstairs to Rey’s bedroom, telling her that he made dinner. Poe sits up, looking over into one of the bowls to see that Finn made soup. Trying to shut down the romantic thoughts train before it leaves the station, Poe focuses on totally non-romantic things. Things like sports. Yeah, nobody holds hands and runs their fingers through other people’s hair in sports. No meaningful gazes into your friends eyes during sports. Poe tries to think about his track team, with Rey and a few other people, always winning the timed races against other schools. He doesn’t mean to remember all the times Finn came to watch their competitions, cheering on his friend and sister. He especially doesn’t mean to think about the time that he had his old jacket with him, and it was super cold, but he wouldn’t need it while he was running. When he saw Finn shivering in the bleachers even with his own hoodie, and ran up the steps to give him the jacket without thinking about it too much, and never got it back or remembered to ask Finn if he still had it. Thinking about sports probably wasn’t his best bet.  
He snaps back into reality when Finn comes back downstairs with Rey, both of them heading into the kitchen to grab their own soup and join Poe in the living room. “Finn, buddy, where’d you learn to cook? This soup is exceptional!” he exclaims after finishing his second large bowl, looking astonishedly over at Finn. “I learned only from the best, of course!” Finn responds, Rey hitting him gently on the shoulder with a smile. “That would be me, obviously.” “Well, my compliments to the chef and also the chef’s teacher, this might just be the best thing I’ve ever eaten.” Rey and Finn both smile at him as he puts his bowl back on the coffee table. Poe basically already decided that he was spending the night there again tonight, and he re-situates himself on the couch as they all talk more. Later that night, Finn and Rey both head to their respective bedrooms, leaving Poe on the couch with an inability to escape his thoughts anymore. Grabbing his phone from the table, he texts back and forth with Jessika for a few minutes before falling asleep.  
In the morning, Poe wakes up about an hour after Rey and Finn had already left for school, opting to not go to school in his current physical state, but still staying at their house for the day. He gets up and goes to the kitchen, helping himself to more of the soup from the previous night, and heading back to the couch. His body aches significantly less today than yesterday, which he counts as a major good sign of his probable increasing state of health. Grabbing his phone from the table, he texts Jessika again, knowing she would text back despite being in class. To: Jessika!!!! 8:34AM. heyyyy jess  
From: Jessika!!!! 8:36AM. poe where r u  
To: Jessika!!!! 8:36AM. Finn’s house, got into a weird mess on monday, call me?  
From: Jessika!!!! 8:40AM. i’ll call u after school dont do anything dumb

Poe isn’t sure what she meant by “anything dumb”, but he’s sure that he would probably do at least a few dumb things before she calls later. He spends the rest of the day lounging around Finn and Rey’s house, checking his texts frequently and sleeping off and on all day. He interests himself in a book he finds on the coffee table that seems to be entirely about dog training, and another book about common engine problems in vintage cars, and a few other odd assorted books. He falls back asleep while reading an old repair manual for a blender. Upon re-awakening half an hour later, he decides to put on an oldies station, staring at the ceiling while lying on the couch and realizing just how many songs are really deeply romantic. Checking his phone after a few minutes, he sees that it would be 7th period if he was in school at the time, and realizes that Jessika has a study hall right now and a free period 8th, so he texts her again.  
To: Jessika!!!! 1:28PM. Jessss can you just call me now I’m bored  
From: Jessika!!!! 1:30PM. ok  
A moment later, his phone buzzes uncontrollably as he receives a call from Jess.

“This had better be important, dude. What’s up?”  
“Jess, I’m having a bit of a crisis. There’s this guy I know, and I’m trying to be pretty vague here but I’m totally screwed.”  
“Like, gay screwed or he’s gonna kick your ass screwed?”  
“Uh, definitely the first one. Hopefully not the second, I’ve had my fair share of that already.”  
“Tell me about it, dude. Wait, what do you mean by saying you’ve ‘had your fair share of getting your ass kicked’? Is there something you’re not telling me?”  
“Oh, um, I heard Phasma being a huge jerk, and I went to tell her that she was a huge jerk, and she kinda just beat the hell out of me. That was Monday, after school, I think.”  
“Oh my god, Poe, are you okay? Is that why you’re gone?”  
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good. Went to Finn’s house, he patched me up and I’m still there.”  
“Dude, why didn’t you call me? Did you go to a doctor, how badly are you hurt?”  
“Can we just get back to my apparent gay crisis? I’m not really in the mood to talk about how badly I got my ass handed to me, sorry.”  
“Yeah, right, back to that. Anyway, what’s the deal?”  
“Basically there’s this guy, and we’ve gotten pretty close lately, and he’s practically the nicest person I’ve ever met, and he’s really cute and smells really nice, and I think I’m gonna die if I don’t kiss him fairly soon. You get me?”  
“Yeah, I feel you dude.”  
“Want to tell me about your gay crisis, Jess? I mean, I can tell you’ve got something going on here you aren’t telling me, kid, I can read you like a book.”  
“Hey now, it’s a crisis in progress. But her hair is really soft and she’s super nice… God, both of us only have like 3 friends, this can’t get any less vague can it?”  
“Hey, we tried, okay?”  
“Yeah, totally. We tried.”  
“Dude, we’re both totally screwed.”  
“Absolutely.”

The two of them chat on the phone for a few more minutes, Poe glad to have someone new to talk to after nearly two days of just staying in Finn’s house, even if he was perfectly happy to just do that. He heats up some more soup from the kitchen, and turns on the TV to pass the time until Rey and Finn get home. About half an hour later the door clicks open, Rey and Finn walking in (accompanied by Jessika), and Poe waves to them from the couch. Finn drops his bag onto the ground, and initiates conversation with the boy on the couch. “How are you feeling? Do you need anything?” He asks, leaning over the back of the couch and making eye contact with Poe. “I’m a lot better today, that soup fixed all my life problems. How are you?” Poe said, smiling and looking over to Finn’s face close to his own. “I’m great, glad to hear you’re better!” the other boy responds, patting Poe on the shoulder before going to the kitchen to get himself some food. Jessika leans against the wall in the living room, cocking an eyebrow at Poe with a knowing look. He raises both eyebrows at her in response, gesturing his head towards the kitchen where Finn and Rey both get snacks. Shaking her head, she makes her way over to the couch and sits next to Poe. “You don’t look too beat up, by the way. How’s your day been?” “Fairly good, I slept a lot and I think calling you was literally the only thing I did all day, so that’s a thing. You?” “Boring.” Finn and Rey come back into the living room, Rey sitting in an armchair across the room, and Finn making himself fit in the space between Jessika and Poe on the large couch. Poe makes himself ignore the look that Jess gives him, and the four of them spend hours in each other’s company, relaxing and doing homework.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy here's chapter 3!  
> tumblr: hotdammneron


	4. Just Too Good To Be True (4)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe stays home from school (again), and Finn takes a few minutes to tell Poe's parents where their son has been for the past few days.

The next morning, Poe decides that he should probably go to school today. Blinking sleep from his eyes on the third morning he awoke on Finn’s couch, he eases himself up into a seated position. Still feeling his entire body ache with each motion, he groans and pushes himself off the couch. He walks into the kitchen, bumping his hip into the corner of the coffee table, and gets some soup from the fridge. It really says something about one’s cooking if someone can eat nothing but one food for two days and not get sick of it, and by these terms Finn’s soup might be the god of all foods. Upon settling back down on the couch, he realizes his thoughts of going to school today are entirely futile, as he woke up at 11. Besides, he doesn’t even have any clean clothes, and he’s been wearing Finn’s old pajamas for nearly three days. He makes a mental note to ask him to take him to his house later today so he can at least grab a clean shirt that actually belongs to him.   
Earlier that morning, Finn considers waking Poe up as he lays asleep on the couch, covered by blankets. He decides against it, and makes himself breakfast before leaving for school with Rey. Through the day, he takes time to pay attention to Phasma and her friends’ mannerisms. The three of them act like their regular selves all day, but he notices something peculiar during lunch. Hux, Phasma, Kylo, and a random ninth grader sit at a table against the wall, all of them eating and making quiet conversation. He listens in on Phasma talking, and finds that she seems to be telling the story of how brutally she had beaten Poe the other day, speaking in her usual cold tone with her boot-clad feet sitting on the cafeteria table. Hux listens intently, leaning forward and an evil grin spreading across his face as she recounts her fight. Sitting next to him, their fingers intertwined on the table, is Kylo, listening a bit less enthusiastically and looking a bit distressed. Across the table is the ninth grader, with an even more intense look on his face than that of Hux, which was pretty unnerving. Finn notices Kylo fiddling with something under the table, and shifts himself to see that the black haired boy was currently digging his plastic fork directly into his own leg.   
Finn pulls his attention away from their conversation when he hears Phasma say “For all I know, the poor fellow’s still out there, bleeding his pitiful self to death.”, balling his fists and digging his nails into his palm. When he looks back a few minutes later Phasma is nowhere to be seen, Kylo and Hux talking quietly, and the freshman gone as well. He turns back to his mostly missed conversation with Jessika and Rey, noticing that the two of them are sitting slightly closer together today than before. When lunch is over, Finn continues through his classes without any other weird occurrences from the “First Order” (the name that the odd gang of Kylo’s friends referred to themselves as), but noticing a distinct lack of Phasma anywhere to be seen for the rest of the day. He doesn’t even see her outside the building after school, even after glancing at all her usual spots where she stands and looks cool and intimidates everyone. He feels a buzz in his pocket a few minutes later, and sees that it’s a text from Poe.  
From: Poe, 3:38PM. Hey Finn could you stop by my house after school?  
From: Poe, 3:38PM. My parents don’t know where I’ve been :V  
To: Poe, 3:39PM. Okay, tell your parents you’ve been at my house because you got in a fight?  
From: Poe, 3:40PM. OH GOD DONT MENTION THE FIGHT JUST MAKE SOMETHING UP  
To: Poe, 3:40PM. I’ll come up with something, dont worry  
To: Poe, 3:40PM. Anything else u want me to do while I’m there?  
From: Poe, 3:41PM. Please tell Bea Bea I love her!!!  
To: Poe, 3:41PM. [thumbs up emoji]  
Luke was still out of town for a few days, so Finn still has his old white camaro (with red stripes) available to drive back home. He walks out to the back lot and gets into the car, wondering why Luke doesn’t get a new one even after all this time (he got it in college), but it still runs and surely holds a lot of sentimentality for his father. Rey was going to Jessika’s house, so he planned on heading back home. He drives most of the way home before remembering his promise to tell Poe’s parents where he had been, and tries to think of an adequate lie. He had never met Mr. and Mrs. Dameron, and felt himself getting nervous despite the total normalcy of meeting a friend’s parents. Granted, generally one met a friend’s parents along with their friend, and not when having to tell a huge lie and not disclose the fact that their son got his ass kicked. He wipes his palms one at a time on his pant legs, and pulls into the Dameron household driveway. According to Poe, at least one of them should be home right about now.   
He walks up the front steps, taking a moment to compose himself before knocking twice on the door before him. A few seconds later the door clicks open, and Finn can’t believe what he’s seeing. Standing in front of him is a man who looks like what he imagines Poe would look like in about another 20 or 30 years, with the same bright eyed smile, but greying hair and more of a beard. Finn finds himself sweating a bit more, and forgets to talk a minute before the man, presumably Poe’s father, initiates the conversation.  
“Hi, how can I help you?”  
“Uh, yeah, is this Poe Dameron’s house?”  
“Yes, he’s my son. He’s not home at the moment I’m afraid, but I can leave him a message if you’d like…”   
“Oh, no, it’s alright, I wanted to tell you that he’s been staying at my house for the past few nights, in case you were wondering.”  
“Really? Is everything alright?”  
“Yeah, definitely, everything is absolutely fine Mr. Dameron, we were just working on… A project for chemistry class, yeah, and we both thought it would be more convenient for him to stay over for a while so we could communicate easier.”   
“Oh, I’m glad to hear he’s alright. What was your name?”  
“Um, Finn. Finn Skywalker.”  
“Nice to meet you, Finn. Can I help you with anything else?”  
“No, sir. I should be leaving now, it was nice to finally meet you Mr. Dameron.”  
Finn reaches to shake the older man’s hand, saying one final goodbye before leaving. He sits in the car for a few minutes, calming himself before driving the rest of the way home. He texts Poe before leaving, telling him that his dad was alright with him being at Finn’s house, and no problems came up. When he gets home a few minutes later, he sees Poe still laying on the couch, reading a book about mechanics that he presumably got from Rey. When he hears the door open, Poe practically leaps off the couch to greet Finn.   
“How’d it go with my dad? What’d you say?”  
“It went pretty well, I told him that we were working on a chemistry project. It was the first thing that popped into my head, neither of us even have a chemistry class this year-”  
“Hey, we’ve got plenty of chemistry, buddy.”  
Poe stops his train of thought here, pausing awkwardly after finishing that sentence. Finn looks at him, probably expecting more from his friend.   
“Um, how was your day, dude? Anything weird happen at school?”   
“Pretty good, not much weird happened, but Phasma kinda disappeared halfway through the day? Not quite sure about that, but how are you feeling?”  
“I feel alright, actually. My entire body doesn’t feel like it’s on fire anymore, so that’s a plus, and I haven’t quite slept all day today, I think the past 48 hours of sleep is finally catching up with me.”  
Poe silently thanks whatever forces moved Finn to continue the conversation and not get caught up on his accidental flirting. Sometimes he couldn’t help but hit on his friends, and normally it wasn’t a big deal because all parties involved knew that Poe definitely wasn’t interested. It’s different with Finn. Finn, with his broad stature and soft features, who took Poe into his house unquestioned and helped him recover from his injuries, who cooked a lot and never disappointed with his dinner choices for the day. Just, Finn. All of Finn was beautiful and nice and soft, and when Poe was around him he never wanted to leave. He wonders if Finn ever feels the same way about him, if he liked Poe in the way that Poe liked him. Dismissing the thought, he realizes he was standing in front of Finn by the door for a few seconds more than was probably necessary, and moved out of the way and back to the couch quickly.   
The next day, Poe decides to actually go back to school. He considered asking Rey to borrow some of her concealer to try and cover up his still apparent black eyes, but opted against it, as they probably had different tones anyway, and it wasn’t a big deal. Mostly he didn’t want to give Phasma the satisfaction of seeing him in this state, but he’d already missed three or four days consecutively, so he borrows some cleaner clothes from Finn (He had to cinch the belt extra tight to fit Finn’s larger jeans around his waist comfortably) and goes to school with his temporary housemates. Walking out the door after breakfast, he sees Finn pull an old leather jacket over his shoulders, and it slowly dawns on him that it was his jacket. “Finn, is that my jacket?” He stops at the door and turned to the other boy, narrowing his eyes and trying to determine whether or not it was actually his or not. Looking slightly shocked and shrugging the jacket off of his broad shoulders, Finn responds, “Yeah, I borrowed it a while ago but I forgot it was yours-” “Keep it, it looks better on you anyway.” He reaches out a hand and pulls the jacket back onto Finn, patting his shoulder. He mentally curses himself for accidentally making a move on his friend again, but Finn just blushes, Rey rolling her eyes and pushing the two of them gently out the door.   
The day passes uneventfully for Poe, with nobody asking too many questions about his absence or pitiful appearance. If anyone asks, he just responds with classic lines, such as “you should see the other guy” among other unoriginal phrases. Little did most know that they were probably already seeing “the other guy” somewhere that day, and her expression was a bit too smug when she notices Poe walking the halls again. His friends walk extra close to him in the hallways, Jessika shooting venomous glances at anyone who stared for too long.  
“I swear to god, if Phasma walks by our table one more time, I’m gonna snap her neck.” Rey whispers at lunch, glaring at the much taller blonde girl as she strolls through the lunch room back to her usual table. Nobody doubts Rey’s physical ability to kick Phasma’s ass, but most advise against it for safety’s sake. “Last time someone here tried to fight her, you all know what happened.” Poe says, smiling despite his serious tone and the rest of the group laughing at this. “If anyone can do it, it’s Rey, it’s an undeniable fact.” Jessika says, pulling the other girl closer with one arm. Rey reaches over and kisses Jess gently on the cheek, and Poe comes to the conclusion that apparently that was a thing now. He flashes a thumbs up across the table to Jessika, her beaming in response. She raises her eyebrows and glances from him to Finn and back to Poe, and Poe responding with a quick shake of his head to indicate his apparent lack of initiative with his situation.  
On sunday, Poe finally decides to go home. Finn drives him the few blocks to his house, with Rey seated in the back seat, as he decides what to tell his parents about his still slightly beat up appearance. After pulling into the driveway, he carefully hops out of the car and waves goodbye to the siblings before entering the house. His parents aren’t home, potentially out at a dinner party or something of the sort he would’ve opted out of anyway, so he leaves a note (just in case he doesn’t see them before the next day) on the kitchen counter. He gets a snack, missing the convenience of Finn’s ready-made soup in the fridge, and starts on the abundance of homework he missed during his absence from school. Most of the homework is neglected in favor of texting Finn and watching TV, all from the comfort of his own bed and his own clothes (however comfortable the other boy’s shirts were, it was nice to be back to his favorite shirts and pajamas that actually belong to him).   
A few days later, Poe gets his report card in the mail for the last midterm of the year, and notices something really exciting. He’s passing calculus. His bi-weekly study meetings with Finn had really paid off, even though a lot of that time was spent with him trying not to get distracted by his smile or the way he easily explained things. One week, when they met at a coffee shop near both of their houses, Poe ran into a bit of a problem. Despite people calling this practice “totally not punk rock, Dameron”, Poe really liked lattes. When he went out for coffee alone this wasn’t a problem, but he felt the need to uphold his cool reputation around Finn. Upon ordering a triple-shot espresso, he waited for Finn to sit at a table and get situated, still leaning on the counter as he called for the barista’s attention. “Hey, so, I’ve got a kinda odd request. I just ordered the manliest drink I could think of on the spot, could you maybe switch that out for some kind of latte? I’ll trust your recommendation, and I’m really sorry if this is inconvenient, but could you make it some kind of fruity thing with just the one shot of espresso? Thank you so much, I can’t believe I’m doing this.” He grins at her as she patiently waits through his explanation, passing her an extra $5 bill before heading back to Finn’s table. She stands at the counter for a minute, a bit flushed, and secretly hopes that he’s available even though she definitely doesn’t have a chance with him.  
The two of them worked together for a few hours every Tuesday and Thursday after school for three months until Poe’s calculus grade drastically improved. They met up more frequently for the week after his recovery, being as he missed a lot of school and had to make up extra work for that time he missed. Luckily, calculus is arguably the least romantic thing in the world. Despite this, he still manage to get distracted by Finn’s every movement, his smooth voice as he explained a particularly difficult problem, the way his lips moved when he went to drink his coffee. Sometimes he would mess up a problem just so Finn would explain it to him, or make any number of mistakes so he would sit a little bit closer while he helped Poe understand the math. He even resorted to googling bad math puns just so the next time they worked together he had some good material to make Finn laugh. It seemed like every little thing that Finn did at this point drove him absolutely mad, from the way he swore under his breath when he burned his tongue on his coffee to his pleased tone when Poe worked out a problem that had been challenging him all evening.   
Thinking about all of this, Poe just realized how much more of a problem he had months after he began his tutoring with Finn. While he had a much improved calculus grade now, he also was probably madly in love with his best friend, and it was most likely totally one-sided. Knowing his track record with this kind of thing, the subject of his affection was probably head over heels for some other person, and had strictly platonic feelings for Poe. Swearing loudly, he flops down on the couch, report card still in hand. He pulls out his phone, and decides to send Finn a photo of his grade in calculus as a sort of verification that tutoring him wasn’t entirely a waste of time. Moments later, Finn responds.  
From: Finn~ 3:42PM. !!!! proud of you buddy!!!  
To: Finn~ 3:42PM. Thanks!!! I couldn’t have done it without you like  
From: Finn~ 3:43PM. Lies!! I just helped you uncover your true brainpower!!!  
To: Finn~ 3:43PM. If you insist :)

Poe was used to having not so great dreams. In fact, he couldn’t remember a time in the past few years that he could recall a positive dream when he awoke. He either didn’t have good dreams whatsoever, or his brain just didn’t hold onto them until the morning. His dreams weren’t necessarily bad, so much as just sort of unsavory or just straight up things he didn’t want to think about. Things like Hux with a bowlcut. Things like everyone he loved and held dear to him leaving him without explanation. That last one could probably be considered pretty bad, but Poe didn’t count it as any kind of nightmare, just more of a negative feeling that could be dispelled pretty quickly. Because of the general trend of bad dreams, he definitely never expected memorably good dreams any more. This is why he was totally surprised when he woke up happy the next morning.  
His dream was short and blurred at the edges. He was looking up at a bright blue sky, accented with scattered, fluffy clouds. There were leaves in his periphery, as well as a shape to the side of him. He turned, feeling the cool grass move beneath his head, and saw Finn laying on the grass next to him. The two of them were at the base of an aged oak tree, it’s branches spreading out to the sky above them, and it’s roots reaching deep and well established beneath them. When Finn took his hand, he felt like the two of them became similar to the tree, deeply established and immovable. He closed his eyes in this moment, soon falling out of his dreaming state, but that feeling remained inside him when he awoke, and he felt new, and he felt permanent.


	5. Just Too Good To Be True (5)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe is in way too deep, and Finn hasn't seen Grease.

Poe Dameron was, undeniably, in far too deep, in multiple meanings of the phrase. First of all, he just about couldn’t handle Finn any more. Every time he smiled or laughed at one of Poe’s jokes, he fell deeper and deeper in love with him, no matter how much he tries to deny it. The worst part is that Jessika and Rey both know about his feelings for Finn at this point, and will not stop nagging him about it. It takes just about everything Rey’s got not to just tell Poe that Finn feels the same way and get this all over and done with, but she pinky swore to Finn that she would never tell him, and pinky swears hold infinite power in the Skywalker household. Being as she can’t tell him how Finn feels, she resorts to teasing Poe incessantly as a second effort. She did similarly with Finn, but only in private in order to keep his (fairly blatantly obvious) feelings a secret.   
Secondly, Poe Dameron was currently in the far end of the swimming pool, and doesn’t know how to swim, leaving him literally in too deep. Even though the water only reaches just above his head, he panics a bit and scrambles to grab the edge of the pool and cling to it for safety. Moments earlier he was crouched casually on the deck of the pool, talking to Finn, when he was suddenly pulled fully clothed into the water by a previously un-noticed person. They were all at the local pool a few blocks away from Jessika’s house, with Finn, Rey, and Jessika all intending on swimming for a while to unwind and get some fresh air, while Poe decided to just hang out by the pool being as he never learned how to swim. Junior year ended a few weeks previously, and the sun was blazing hot in the sky.   
He sat for nearly an hour by the side of the pool, chatting with Finn and definitely not being at all distracted by how he had never seen Finn without a shirt on before today, and having a perfectly good time without fully submerging himself in the pool. He had his feet in the water, his shirt unbuttoned a bit to allow some air to cool him down, and pants rolled up past his knees. Listening intently as Finn told a story about his summer internship so far, Poe didn’t notice Rey coming towards him under the water, and was totally surprised as she grabbed his ankles and dragged him into the pool. Moments later he is flailing under the water, and is equally startled when he feels strong, unidentified hands pulling him up from the bottom of the pool and back up to the surface. Rubbing water from his eyes and coughing up water, he sees Finn in front of him, supporting his arms and helping him stay afloat. “Rey, what the fuck!” He calls, laughing, as she emerges from the water a few feet away from him, getting a glare from the life guard but not caring.   
At the exact same time, Finn is also in too deep for similar reasons. While he is definitely able to swim, he can’t quite handle Poe Dameron any longer. He’s known him for nearly a year now, and can no longer count on both hands combined the number of times he’s wanted to kiss him. Even in the first few months, Poe was already driving him crazy. When they played truth or dare at Jessika’s house, he might have secretly hoped for some kind of dare about kissing, though at the same time that would definitely be a traumatic and bad experience. He just about lost it when Poe spent nearly a week at his house, and just wanted to kiss him gently and try and make all his pain go away, but thought that would definitely be inappropriate for the situation. When they met over coffee to work on Poe’s calculus mentoring, it took all he had not to move any closer and just make a move right then and there. Part of it might have been him overhearing the conversation Poe had with the barista one day about needing less harsh coffee, and the fact that Poe was trying to impress him with something as little as strong coffee. Another part could be the way he looked when he was really focused on something, and the way he stood up for Finn even after so little time knowing each other, and the way he looked at Bea Bea like she was the most important thing in the world. Between all of these things, he found himself falling totally and unstoppably for Poe Dameron.   
Snapping out of his thoughts, Finn splashes some water at Rey, who dodges out of the way just in time, with the oncoming water hitting a kid who looked a bit younger than them right in the face. Jessika makes her way over from across the pool, joining the group, as Poe manages to grab the edge of the pool and support himself in the water. As the other three continue splashing each-other with water, Poe manages to narrowly avoid a few shots from Jessika and gets mostly out of the pool. His shirt and pants are obviously totally soaked, so he opts to take off his shirt, setting it down a chair to the side of the pool. As he pushes his hair out of his face, Rey catches Finn accidentally staring at him for a bit too long, and punches her brother in the shoulder. Poe stays mostly out of the water as usual for the rest of the day, with few more interruptions from Rey, and still talks with Finn at the edge of the pool.   
When Poe leaves to grab some snacks for the group, Jessika and Rey take his absence to their advantage. “Did that for you, little bro.” Rey says, nudging him with a wink. “Yeah, I think he was definitely wearing a bit too much of a shirt, glad you could help with that.” “Oh my god, stop it both of you, you’re going to be the death of me!” “I think Poe’s probably gonna be the death of you too at this rate. Just talk to him, I swear he probably feels the same way!” “No way, he probably likes someone else. He could be straight, for all I know.” Jessika laughs incredibly hard at this. “Christ, Finn, have you met the guy? He might be the gayest dude I know.” Finn tries his hardest not to sigh in relief at this. “Hey, Jess, are there literally any further steps we can take to set these two up?” “I’ve got some ideas, babe. Don’t worry Finn, we’ll get this plan in motion.” “No, Oh my god-” Rey splashes him in the face to cut him off in the midst of his fake complaining. Finn points at his sister and her girlfriend, rolling his eyes. “You two, are absolutely terrible.” Jessika splashes even more water at him.  
Poe returns a few minutes later to another small water fight breaking out between the three in the pool, Jessika and Rey unfairly teamed against Finn. “Guys, I got snacks, stop fighting!” he calls, trying to break up the heated battle with promise of food. Sure enough, all three of them stop splashing water at each other and get out of the pool to get snacks from Poe. They all get situated on chairs and the ground around the pool right before the lifeguard calls for the pool maintenance break, all of them eating various food and chatting. Rey moves closer to Jessika, the two of them speaking in hushed tones and occasionally looking over to Finn and Poe. Poe notices this, and is highly concerned about the mischievous look on Jessika’s face. “So, she looks the guy dead in the eye and puts about 200 more pounds on the bar and lifts it like it’s nothing!” Poe snaps back into his conversation with Finn apparently right as it’s over, but manages to infer what the rest of the story was about. “Finn, that’s my favorite story about me! He ran like a chicken, I swear.” Everyone laughs, Jessika throwing a skittle and Rey catching it in her mouth.   
After a few more hours at the pool, they decide to head back to Jessika’s house for a while, as she only lives a few blocks away. The hot sun allows everyone’s clothes to dry, being as a few more rounds of Rey dragging friends into the pool ensued following their snack break, and Poe’s clothes were sufficiently soaked again. As they walk home, Finn tries not to trip over the sidewalk whenever he gets distracted by how Poe’s damp shirt sticks to him, and Poe similarly attempts to not fall off of the curb into the gutter because Finn hasn’t been wearing a shirt basically all day. Luckily, Poe has an extra change of clothes at Jessika’s house for some unexplained reason, so he changes and puts his damp clothes in his bag. Rey goes to wash her hair in the bathroom, and everyone else changes and goes to hang out in the guest room.   
Laying on the bed, Poe pulls up Netflix on the large TV in the room, trying to find something suitable to put on. Jessika walks in, combing her hair, and settles down onto the huge bed next to him. “Hey Poe, you should put your all time favorite movie on.” “Oh my god Jess, I don’t love it that much!” “Come on, you have literally every word memorized! Just put it on, dude.” Finn and Rey enter after a moment, with the other two still deep in an argument about whether or not an un-named movie was Poe’s favorite or not. “Wait, what’d I miss?” Rey asks as she walks in, making her way over to the wall and sitting on the ground next to the bed. “Not much, just Poe Dameron’s favorite movie is Grease and he totally denies it.” “Do not start this again! It’s not my favorite!” “Poe, just shut up and put the damn movie on.” Begrudgingly, he finds Grease on the TV and presses play.   
“Y’know, I don’t think Finn or I have ever seen Grease.” Rey says nonchalantly as Poe turns on the movie and the opening begins, but he immediately pauses. “You haven’t seen Grease? You’ve lived on this beautiful world for nearly 18 years and you’ve never seen Grease? Jessika, how have you let this happen?” Jess shrugs, pressing play on the movie again. “Not everyone loves Grease as much as you do, kid.” Poe shakes his head at this, returning his attention to the screen. Accidentally, Poe and Jessika break into a fully instinctual rendition of Summer Nights, much to Rey and Finn’s amusement. The song is over before they realize that it happened, as Rey collapses into a fit of laughter on the ground. Jess rolls off of the bed to join her girlfriend on the ground, staying there for the rest of the movie.  
“Greased Lightning is undeniably the most unnecessarily sexual scene in all musical theater history.” Rey says, rolling her eyes as the musical number comes to an end. “You get that attitude out of my house, young lady.” Poe says, shooting her a venomous look. “Poe, this is my house, she can stay.” Jessika responds, reaching up to kiss Rey’s cheek. Rey throws a pillow from by her head and hits Poe in the face with it. The two girls seem to be deep in quiet conversation in their corner within moments, which Poe manages to pick up a few words of. “This plan isn’t working, any other ideas?” “Fear, definitely fear.” is all he hears before tuning out. Looking over at Finn, he notices that the other boy looks even more enthusiastic about Grease than Poe had ever seen anyone before, and he had never felt more proud. Plus, his smile was infectious, and it just added to his Finn problem to see him so excited about a movie that definitely wasn’t Poe’s favorite.   
Poe can’t help himself, and rolls over onto the left side of the couch to say something quiet to Finn, who stays seated on the ground. “How did they ever expect me to be emotionally invested in Sandy and Danny as a couple when there’s so much more chemistry between Danny and Kenickie? It’s so obvious, he’s the real one that Danny wants here.” “Absolutely, plus the whole ‘change for your man’ theme is repulsive.” “Finn, I’ve been thinking the exact same thing for my entire life, you really get me.” He pats Finn’s hair affectionately, but not too affectionately, and that is definitely a mistake. If Finn wasn’t already pretty much the perfect man, his hair is super soft. Like, really super soft, and Poe wants to touch it a lot more, but that would probably be weird, so he refrains. Instead of doing something that would embarrass himself further that night, he folds his hands under his chin and just pays attention to the last few minutes of the movie, trying his hardest not to sing along too much.   
Once the movie is over, Rey pushes Finn and Poe out of the room to get more snacks. The two of them stand in the kitchen as the popcorn cooks in the microwave, still talking about the movie. “I never understood why Frenchie was so devastated over her hair, that was a really good color on her.” “Honestly though! The pink really brought out her eyes. And you’re so right about the Danny and Kenickie thing, the tension there was palpable.” Neither of them speak for another moment, and Poe really understands what that aforementioned tension felt like. He is snapped out of his thoughts by the chime of the microwave, “Do you want to still give them a minute? We can’t be sure what they’re doing in there.” “Definitely don’t want to think about that with my sister, but yeah, probably.” “Ew.” “Yeah.” Poe pulls the hot popcorn out of the microwave, and pushes himself up to a seated position on the counter and cutting open the bag. Finn leans against the opposite counter, and grabs some popcorn from the bag that Poe offers him. After a few minutes of standing and talking, Poe feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He sees a text from Rey, just saying “where are you nerd come back we’ve gotta watch another movie”. “Oh shit, I don’t think they were doing anything up there, let’s go.”   
Poe settles back down on the bed in the guest room, Rey and Jessika still snuggling in the corner, but now with half of the pillows from the bed supporting them. “What’re you putting on now, Rey?” Finn asks, sitting down on the edge of the bed at a respectful distance from Poe. “You’ll see, I’m not sure if Poe’s gonna be able to handle this, though.” “Come on Jess, I’m tough! I can handle something scary.” Jessika doesn’t respond, and just hits the play button on the remote. Poe finds this to potentially be the biggest lie that he has ever told. Within minutes of the movie (which shouldn’t even be scary, it has a very generic plot and is super predictable), he finds himself on edge. He looks over at Finn for a second, and sees him nearly as distressed as he is. Finn leans over to Rey where she lays on the ground, but she tells him to “Shhh and watch the movie, Finn.”.   
The movie stays oddly terrifying for at least another half hour. Finn moves to talk to Rey a few more times, but being silenced every time in favor of just watching the movie. Part way through the movie, Rey and Jessika take a turn getting snacks, leaving Finn and Poe alone in the room. After a few minutes they hear a noise from down stairs, and despite the probability of it just being one of their friends, Poe jumps and grabs Finn out of instinct. He stays there for a minute, feeling a bit less scared. Then, he realizes that he is basically sitting in Finn’s lap with his arms wrapped around his shoulders, and loosens his grip a bit and pulls his legs back into his own personal space. “Well. Sorry about that.” he says, the amount of blushing less apparent in the darkness of the guest room than it would be otherwise. Finn laughs it off, laying back on the bed. Poe starts laughing too, and they both laugh incessantly for about five minutes until Rey and Jessika return, which works well to dispel the tension in the room.   
When the two others come back they find Finn and Poe both laying on the bed in the guest room, dissolved into fits of giggles. Jessika raises an eyebrow at Rey, both of them smiling at this. Despite what he said earlier, Poe really can’t handle scary movies. He finds himself jumpy at any and all surprises, and accidentally grabs Finn’s hand whenever he would get scared, which was pretty often. At one point he forgets to pull his hand away from Finn’s, getting nervous after a moment, but settling back down when the other boy has no negative reaction to this. Soon, the movie is over, leaving Poe embarrassed about the accidental physical contact with Finn, and giving Rey and Jessika even more fuel for the joking that would surely be directed at him later on. Jessika and Rey had moved back to the floor at some point, and they were laying on the ground practically cuddling. Finn and Poe had both stayed on the bed, and were both laying down, though Poe tries his hardest to keep a professional distance away from Finn.   
Everyone falls asleep at varying times through the night, with Poe getting tired first but insisting that he could stay up for at least another hour, but then falling asleep within fifteen minutes. Jessika is the last one to fall asleep, and before she does she gets blankets for everyone from the closet, with one blanket for each pair of people. She can’t help but smile at Finn and Poe asleep right next to each other, and if they could just get that close during the day too that would be great.   
Poe wakes up at some point in the night with two predominant thoughts occupying his head. For one thing, Finn is a serious blanket hog and needs to be stopped. Also, he’s sharing a blanket on a bed with Finn apparently. That was a new, unexpected, and not entirely unwanted development. Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he checks his phone to see that it’s only four, and tries to get back to sleep. It’s too cold for him to sleep, so he tries his hardest to pry some of the blanket away from Finn, with hardly any of the soft fabric yielding to him. When Finn stirs, he worries that his motions woke him, but he is still asleep as he rolls over and wraps one arm around Poe. Poe thinks to himself that this might be the thing that kills him, just this moment right here with Finn asleep holding him, but that would be a fairly good way to go out. Curling his legs into his stomach and resting his face on the other boy’s arm, Poe falls back asleep a few minutes later, significantly warmer and more comfortable than previously.  
An hour or two following that, Finn awakens slowly, not taking much notice initially of his seemingly awkward sleeping position. He lays mostly on his back with a tilt to one side, and his left arm holding something warm close to him. Upon a second of further thought, he realizes that this warm thing is Poe, who is sleeping curled into a ball and tucked under his arm. He also notices that he has an entire large blanket wrapped around himself, and Poe is shivering slightly in his sleep, so he pulls some of the blanket out from underneath him and drapes it over the other boy carefully. He can’t help but smile, but checks the time to see that it’s way too early for any of this, and this is probably all just a dream, and falls back asleep with Poe still curled against his side.   
The following morning, Poe pulls himself out of his sleeping ball-style position, stretching and arching his back while still managing to remain under the thick blanket on top of him. He vaguely remembers something from last night, which he brushed off as a dream. When he looks over his shoulder to the side of the guest bed next to him, he pauses for a minute. That was definitely not a dream. That, or he’s still dreaming. In movies and shows people always pinch themselves to see if they’re dreaming, so he tries that and finds that he is definitely not asleep. Next to him lies Finn, mostly wrapped in blankets, his breathing steady and gentle. His chest rises and falls softly, his lips parted slightly and his short hair spread out a bit behind his head. Finding himself exceedingly tired again, Poe lays his head on Finn’s arm just to the side of his chest, and falls back into an easy sleep.   
When he wakes back up, he feels Finn’s fingers wrapped into his hair, moving ever-so-slightly, working small knots out of his curly hair. Feeling his face heat up instantly, he looks up to Finn, who had been staring at the ceiling absently. Noticing his gaze, Finn rushes to remove his hands from Poe’s hair, blushing even deeper than Poe had been already. Poe sits up, still looking at Finn, the other boy looking fairly embarrassed. He grins down at Finn, his face still burning up quite visibly as he runs his hands through his own hair. Finn looks to the corner, dragging his hands down his face as he notices what’s happening on the floor. Jessika lays on the ground, wrapped around a sleeping Rey nearly like a cat, looking absolutely ecstatically up at Finn and Poe on the bed. “You saw nothing!” Finn hisses down at her, getting an even more excited look and raised eyebrows as the only response from Jessika.


	6. Just Too Good To Be True (6)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, Finn has never been on a roller coaster, so Poe, Rey and Jessika set out to change that.

Finn had never been to very many amusement parks. Growing up in the Skywalker household it was sort of a right of passage, so he had been to some places but never really enjoyed the rides. He always preferred just walking around the park, eating various snacks and watching the other visitors screaming on the rides and having a good time. Rey always gave him an earful for this, claiming that he was ruining her good time by not having a good time, though he knew that she was joking and not actually mad at him. Rey basically lived off of adrenaline, which made roller coasters potentially one of her favorite things in the world. She most likely got this from her father, who was a calm but easily excited man, who also absolutely loved thrilling rides at amusement parks. Finn had always accompanied them when they went to theme parks, and went on some of the less intimidating rides, but he had never in his life been on a roller coaster.   
When Poe and Jessika found this out, they seemed absolutely devastated, being as they apparently shared the (seemingly genetic) Skywalker adrenaline love.   
“Have you done nothing with your life, Finn? First not seeing Grease, now this?”  
“Honestly, I can’t believe this.”  
“It’s been nearly seventeen years Finn, just go on a damn roller coaster with me for once!”  
“Buddy, get changed, we’ve gotta go right now. I’ll make some snacks.”  
Poe goes into the kitchen of the Finn and Rey’s once unfamiliar house, pulling out assorted food items and making numerous sandwiches. Finn runs to his room to change out of his pajamas, opting to wear shorts and a sleeveless shirt to account for the hot summer temperatures outside of the air conditioned house. When he emerges from his room and returns to the living room, Rey and Jessika are standing by the door impatiently as Poe finishes making snacks in the kitchen. Once he’s done they leave, walking out to Jessika’s car across the street as it can fit more people than Luke’s old car, which Luke has at the shop currently anyway. Jessika tosses the keys at Finn, keeping her arm around Rey’s waist as they cross the street.  
“Finn, you can drive, I’m tired.”  
“Sounds good to me, sleep now, you’ve gotta be alert for the solid steel scream train you’re all dragging me to.”   
“You wreck my car and I’ll kill you.”  
Finn winks at her, going around the car to the driver’s side as the others pile into the other seats, with Poe sitting in the passenger’s seat. The drive to the amusement park takes about an hour, Finn vaguely remembering the address from his previous visits, but Poe pulling up directions on his phone anyway just to be sure. Poe stared out of the window for most of the drive, humming idly to himself as he watched the trees and buildings speed past in his periphery. Multiple sources of ambient noise fill the car, between Jessika and Rey’s quiet conversation, the whisper of the car radio, and Poe’s humming, creating a calm atmosphere between all of them. The ambiance is ruined when Poe’s phone chimes loudly, telling them to take a right turn, and then beeping quickly for the next five or so seconds until he figures out how to turn it off.   
They arrive at the amusement park a few minutes later with no further phone-based interruptions, and Finn finds a terrific parking spot near the entrance. They go to buy tickets, and Rey manages to convince the person at the desk to sell her a child’s ticket, in part due to her small stature, and probably also based on how little he was probably getting paid for this nonsense. The four of them enter with day passes to the park and a bright red stamp on their hands. Jessika insists on getting snacks before they do anything else, and despite Poe’s insistence that he brought enough food from home to keep them from buying overpriced park food, she leaves and returns with enough cotton candy and pretzels for everyone. Rey and Jessika share basically all of their food, much to everyone else’s dismay.   
“You two disgust me.”  
“You know you love us, Poe. Eat your damn pretzel.”  
“Can we get back to the task at hand, which is getting this boy onto a roller coaster?”  
Everyone else agrees enthusiastically with this notion, Finn a bit less exuberant but still seeming excited about roller coasters. However, the biggest mistake of the day was undeniably the group allowing Poe to choose which rides they go on. He grabs a map from a small kiosk, pulling out a pen and marking down his objectives, choosing somewhat at random as he had never been here before. The others follow him as he practically skips his way through the park, stopping eventually at the line for one of the rides. The rest of the group eyes the entrance to the attraction warily, seeing the ride labelled as “Speed Demon 3000”, and the line full of bouncing children ahead of them. As they near the end of the line the ride itself comes into view, and it is absolutely the most intimidating thing most of them had ever seen. Full of loops and plummeting drops, the carts of the Speed Demon 3000 race away from the docking and boarding platform, the patrons of the rides a blur as they scream in excitement. Finn looks absolutely terrified.  
A few minutes later a disinterested park employee ushers them into the car of the ride, reminding them all once again to keep all limbs inside the ride and keep seats buckled at all times. Their cart is towards the front of the ride, and Jessika and Rey sit in the back seat of the cart, leaving the front bench to Finn and Poe. Finn grips the hand rail tight, his knuckles white and strained. Poe keeps both his hands lightly on the rail, but claps Finn once on the shoulder comfortingly before the ride starts. Within seconds, the car whirs into motion, people on the ride screaming in joy or fear at the sudden speed increase.  
The ride starts out already fairly fast, the wind whipping Finn’s face as the car grinds along the rails, and he thinks that it probably can’t get any worse than that. He is totally wrong in this assumption. The car slows a bit, continuing on a steady incline, the suspense building as he maintains a firm grip on the bar in front of him. Right when he gets used to this speed, the ride takes an abrupt downward turn, speeding down the slope at an alarming rate. Finn screams, out of fear or excitement or both, and he can barely hear Poe yelling enthusiastically next to him and his other friends screaming behind them. The cart levels out again, going a few feet before shooting back up with the momentum of the previous drop, then flipping upside down on a loop that lasts forever. Finn feels the forces of gravity dragging him down, knowing that this is exactly the opposite of how people are supposed to be in relation to the Earth’s surface, and is grateful that he complied with the command to keep his seatbelt on. The ride continues in a similar fashion, with lots of loops and sudden drops, and he feels his heart pounding in his chest. He absolutely loves it.  
Once the ride pulls to a stop in the drop off bay, Poe looks over to Finn, grinning from ear to ear. Finn breaks into a huge smile moments later, and Poe grabs the railing to steady himself as he stands and works his way out of the cart. He definitely made it look easy. Finn stands up right after him, and falls back into his seat as soon as he stood. Poe steps back into the cart, helping him up and supporting his shaky legs as they walk off the platform and wait for Rey and Jessika to follow. All four of them are smiling.  
“Well? How was it?”  
“Absolutely terrifying. Absolutely terrific.”  
Poe claps him on the shoulder yet again, laughing and happy that he had enjoyed it. Finn was still shaking and covered in sweat, and the heat only made it worse. They went to an ice cream stand in the park before going on any other rides, Poe insisting that Jess should buy his food if she makes them eat in the park, and grumbling something about wasted sandwiches. They go on at least ten more rides while they’re at the park, each one of them thrilling in a different way. One of the rides involves sitting in a spinning seat for an extended period of time, which is surprisingly fun, though it nearly makes Rey sick from the motion. This same ride also pushes Finn and Poe into a position with their faces super close together, which Poe tries to not notice. When he stands up he finds himself suddenly exceedingly dizzy, and falls over, only for Finn to catch him. Leaning heavily in his arms, Poe looks up at Finn, trying not to make it weird as Jessika wolf whistles behind them. He makes a mental note to fight her about this.  
Finn and Poe find themselves in a few more super awkward situations in this time. Their hands brush against each other when they both reach for food at the same time. Rey and Jess abandon them frequently, leaving them with just the tense near-silence between them. Poe accidentally falls into Finn’s arms at least three times, though some of these occurrences he is convinced were caused by Jessika tripping him at any opportunity. The two of them sit by each other on every ride, both parties trying not to get too close to the other. By the end of the day Jessika finally gives in and lets Poe give everyone a sandwich, but still insists on wasting her money on useless souvenirs and bad overpriced food.  
Jess drives them all home, or at least back to Rey and Finn’s house, being the only person in the group who isn’t absolutely exhausted. Rey sleeps in the passenger seat, her head against the window and her legs up on the dashboard. In the back seat, Poe leans his head out of the open window, enjoying the cool summer night breeze in his hair, barely awake. Finn is asleep next to him. Shutting his window when they get onto the freeway again, Poe turns to the other side and falls asleep for the duration of the drive.   
Poe and Finn both wake in the back seat of the car as the car pulls into the Skywalker family’s driveway, Rey tapping Poe on the knee to wake him up. They all pile out of the car, Rey pressing a quick kiss against Jessika’s cheek before leaving and going into the house. Poe spends the night at their house, as he does frequently, opting to sleep on the couch in the living room as he always does. He sits on the couch with Finn and Rey, the three of them talking about anything that comes to mind for a few hours. Rey goes to bed after a while, leaving the two boys still talking on the couch. About half an hour after she leaves Finn seems tired, half asleep facing Poe on the other side of the sofa. He leans forward a bit, getting closer to Poe, still keeping (probably accidental) eye contact. Poe tilts toward him seconds later, both of them on the edge of sleep. Following this, Finn’s eyes close completely, falling forward and Poe catching him, apparently having suddenly fallen asleep. Poe shakes his head slowly, resituating himself under Finn’s added weight and slipping into a deep sleep a few moments later.  
For the second time in 24 hours, Poe was woken by Rey poking him. She crouched at the side of the couch, prodding his forearm repeatedly until he woke up. Blinking sleep from his eyes, he glares at her as she gestures to where Finn lays still wrapped in his arms on the couch.  
“Shhh!”   
“Never!”   
Rey hops up from her crouched position by the couch and bounds away to the kitchen. Her enthusiasm, even in the face of mornings, was absolutely bewildering. He glances down at Finn, who has his face buried in the fabric of Poe’s shirt, still asleep. Maybe being totally perplexing was just another Skywalker family trait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> good job poe


	7. Just Too Good To Be True (7)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Go ahead Jessika, shoving your friends into a closet is definitely a good solution when your parents get home early.

The summer between junior and senior year is quickly coming to a close. Jessika, Rey, Finn, and Poe are trying their hardest to make the most out of their few remaining weeks of freedom from school, the four of them spending nearly every day in each others company. Poe takes any opportunity he can find to look at Finn’s muscular arms, which was quite frequently being as the summer was unbearably hot, and he often times neglected to wear a shirt whether they were inside the house or outside. Finn feels similarly about Poe, and silently thanks whatever forces of nature lead Poe to basically never wear a shirt these days. Most of the days were spent at the pool or park, sometimes returning to the amusement park that Finn had been introduced to earlier that summer. They spent nights hanging out as well, mostly at Rey and Finn’s house, sometimes Jessika’s house, and only occasionally Poe’s.   
They were spending the day in a park near Jessika’s house, alternating between the cool shade beneath the trees and the vacant hot metal playground. Rey busies herself weaving clover flowers into her girlfriend’s hair, as Jessika lays in the grass with her head resting in Rey’s lap. Poe and Finn sit next to them in the shade, and Jessika pulls up clumps of grass and places them delicately on Poe’s knee. He nods and pats her hand appreciatively, whispering a quiet word of gratitude for her generous offering of shredded grass. Finn props himself up on his elbows, watching his sister concentrate on her work with Jessika’s hair. He reaches over to pluck a few flowers from the grass to the opposite side of him, and cautiously reaches up to stick one of them into Poe’s hair. Poe doesn’t seem to object, so Finn sets to work carefully weaving together a chain of clover blossoms. After a few minutes of quiet hard work, he sits up and places the floral crown on Poe’s head, Poe brushing against the flowers with his fingers before smiling back down at Finn.   
Later that day as they lay around in her bedroom casually, Jessika hears the front door click open, a look of panic spreading over her face.   
“Shit, shit, shit, I’m not supposed to have boys in my room!”  
“Is this a new thing? What the hell would you do with boys?”  
“Mom and dad don’t know about any of this, they only let me have girls up here because they think I’m gonna get up to some weird business! Not that I mind that I can have Rey with me, but they’d kill me if they knew I had you two over.”  
“Shit.”  
“Yeah, shit.”  
She looks around, to each person in the room, and then a mischievous look spreads across her face as she looks from Finn to Poe. She rushes past them and pulls open her closet, pushing clothes and boxes from the floor onto the floor in the main area of her room. She looks back to the two boys, not seeing them understand what she was going for here in the slightest. Sighing, she points to them and then points to the empty closet, and when they still don’t get it she shoves them into the small closet gently, a hand on each of their backs. “Be good, you two!” she whispers, turning to wink at Rey before sliding the doors shut behind them.   
Hunched awkwardly in the corner of Jessika’s small, cramped closet, Finn can feel Poe’s breath hot in the air around him. In his scramble to get through the door fast, he got his leg cramped at an odd angle and his face awkwardly close to his (totally platonic) friend’s, despite Poe being situated towards the other side of the closet. Realizing how uncomfortably he is sitting this way, he glances up just to see that there is definitely enough room for him to sit up, and pushes himself into a relatively more comfortable position. In the process of resituating himself, Finn manages to get into an even worse position when his hand moves a bit farther than anticipated and he accidentally brushes his knuckles against Poe’s butt. Blushing furiously, he tries his hardest to avoid looking at Poe, as his inevitable smirk and raised eyebrow might be just too much to handle right now. Little does he know, Poe is probably just as embarrassed by this situation, if not moreso. When Poe shifts gently, Finn is aware of his every movement due to their close proximity. Poe pulls his phone from his pocket, accidentally elbowing Finn in the face in the process, and proceeds to send a quick series of texts to Rey. They remain in near silence, save for the occasional quiet grunt of bump into the wall, for a few minutes that seem more like hours.   
Checking his phone yet again, still without a response from the girl who’s girlfriend’s closet he is stuffed awkwardly in with his totally non-romantic buddy, Poe sees that only approximately two minutes have elapsed since they found themselves in this scenario. Heaving a quiet sigh, he shifts gently over, shrinking the distance between himself and Finn by a fractional amount. Finn notices this, though he thinks it may have been his imagination, and it sure seems warm in this closet all of a sudden. The two of them can still hear muffled speaking downstairs, indicating that Rey and Jessika are still downstairs talking with Jessika’s parents. “Is it warm in here, or is it just me?” Poe whispers, turning to face the silent man next to him, still increasing the proximity between the two with nearly his every action. “It’s just you-Wait, no, I mean, yeah it’s super hot in here,” Finn responds, his voice a bit too fast and a bit too loud to seem fully at ease. Another eyebrow raise is the only response from Poe.   
Feeling a bead of sweat trickle down his back and somehow forgetting the awkward proximity between himself and his friend, he decides this would be a good time to take off his thin yet stiflingly warm jacket, again accidentally hitting Finn in the face in the process, whispering an apology and folding his jacket at his feet. Finn sits perfectly still, eyes fixed on the wall in front of him and one of his hands clutching the fabric of his pants as the other hand lays on the ground, fairly close to Poe’s hand. There’s no way that could be intentional though, the close quarters of the closet have them sitting really close to each other, and there’s not many places where one can put their hand, not without touching the person next to you, which totally isn’t what either of them wants at all.   
Poe also finds himself staring blankly at the wall ahead of them, his phone resting on his thigh in case Rey texts to let him know that the coast is clear. He tries to clear his mind of all non-platonic thoughts of Finn, his buddy, his good pal who just happens to have a smile like sunshine and eyes with just the right amount of sparkle in them, and really soft arms that make really good (accidental) pillows. Sitting next to him, Finn tries not to think of how nice Poe's cologne is, how his face defaults to a smile when he plays guitar and sings late at night on the roof with the moon in his eyes, how he prefers lattes to coffee despite some calling that “totally not punk rock”, and how his hair curls when he lets it grow out, and how his smile absolutely melts Finn’s heart. Subconsciously, Poe moves to the left a fraction of an inch, bringing himself closer to Finn, and relaxing against the wall.   
After another minute or two, Finn feels a warm hand on his own and hears Poe’s breathing slow next to him. Glancing over at Poe, he sees his eyes mostly closed and his mouth slightly open, and his eyelashes flutter and he slumps over onto Finn’s shoulder, somehow falling asleep despite the uncomfortable positioning and stifling heat in the cramped closet. Deep in his mind, Finn thinks about how soft Poe’s hair would be under his lips, and he can’t help but lean over slightly and press a gentle kiss against his head, then realizing what he’d done but not really wanting to take it back. Reaching his free hand up, he runs his fingers through his friend’s hair, feeling how soft it was for a second time that day, and noticing that it was growing out a bit and getting curlier than before. Without thinking about it, he kisses the top of his head again, liking the way his hair felt beneath his lips, as Poe’s eyes flutter opened and he awakes, just as Finn pulls away. Looking nervous, he pushed himself up from where he leaned on the other boy’s shoulder, blinking sleep from his eyes as Finn turned crimson. “Was that-” “Oh god Poe I’m so sorry” “Buddy.. Finn…” “I’m so sorry-” Poe cut Finn off in the middle of his second apology by kissing him, keeping their hands intertwined and not quite bothering to sit up. Pulling away after a short and fairly modest kiss, Poe looks back at him, both of them equally flushed at this point. “Really wish we had opened a window,” Finn whispered, Poe nodding, glad that the silence was broken. Poe turns, back against the closet door, stretching his legs a bit across Finn’s lap, licking his lips and still looking over at his not really totally platonic anymore friend.   
“Can we do that again?” he mumbles, a note of pleading in his tone. Finn leans over, closing the space between the two of them, kissing him again, like they both wanted to do for quite a while, but neither of them were sure how to get that through to the other. Poe was ridiculously enamored with Finn and is an incessant flirt, charming basically anyone he met, and contrary to what most people believed, Finn could get a point across to someone if he so pleased. Despite these qualities, neither of them were ever able to tell eachother how they really felt. Poe feels his phone vibrate against his knee, but, being so caught up in the moment, he disregards the message and concentrates on Finn’s lips against his and how Finn plays with his hair and touches his back, and both parties are satisfied that this kiss lasted a bit longer and was more deliberate than the previous one. Finn realizes that Poe’s hair is softer than he had ever imagined or noticed, and his cologne smelled even better this close and on this personal level. Hearing soft footsteps coming up the stairs, Poe pauses for a moment, considering whether or not to cut this off to avoid Jessika and Rey’s teasing, but is promptly brought back into the swing of things as Finn somehow moves closer, still kissing him even after quite some time.   
When the two girls get back to the room, Jessika drops off the snacks gathered from the kitchen onto her bed and pads over to the closet. “Sorry I took so long, dad was chatty today.” she says quietly, with no response but quiet shuffling noises from behind the door. As she pulls open the door, her friends fall out, Finn practically laying on top of Poe, Poe cursing quietly, though his words are muffled by Finn’s mouth on his own. Next to Jessika, Rey leans against the wall, raising an eyebrow at the two people laying on the ground. “Well,” she says, her smile evident in her intonation, as Finn un-pins himself from Poe, blushing a lot. “Knock next time?” Poe responds, his hair a mess around his head, both him and Finn unable to stop smiling. “I’ve been waiting a year for this to happen, you two.” Jessika says, beaming. “Same.” Poe and Finn say nearly in unison, kissing one more time before getting off the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT FINALLY HAPPENED this was actually the first chapter i wrote, but i changed it a lot so it would fit better into the narrative. Hope you enjoy this nonsense! Also sorry this chapter is a lot shorter than the others, I wasn't sure how to fill it out more. Get ready for a 70% fluff increase from here on out.  
> tumblr: hotdammneron

**Author's Note:**

> Okayyy so I posted this on my tumblr a while ago (@Hotdammneron) and now that I have an account here I thought I'd post it here too. This is my first multi-chapter piece of writing ever, so I hope you like it! (Also, for some reason this keeps messing with the formatting and won't let me indent paragraphs so that's a thing!)


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